Lufthansa urges European Commission to ease rules on consolidation

Deutsche Lufthansa AG is hoping the European Commission will water down its stance on competition as the German carrier formally begins the process of acquiring a stake in Italy’s ITA Airways.

Chief Executive Officer Carsten Spohr said lawmakers in Brussels need to give the continent’s carriers permission to compete “in the global league.”

“ITA was our priority, we’re now working on making this possible, taking it through European authorities and then we’ll look at the ...