Italia Trasporto Aereo S.p.A, better known as ITA, has been awarded the Alitalia brand. ”The public offer procedure concerning the Alitalia spa brand and the www.Alitalia.com domain was concluded today “, wrote ITA in a note. ITA bagged the brand for 90 million euros.
On 14 October, Alitalia flew its last flight with flowers for the hostess. The flight took off from Cagliari and landed in Fiumicino. The floral tribute brings down the curtain on the company’s history after almost 75 years.
The government-owned ITA will run Alitalia today, starting with a total of 52 aircraft and 2,800 employees. The First take-off of ITA, the new company that took over from Alitalia, is scheduled today at 6.20 am in Milan Linate to destination Bari. On the first day, 191 flights will be operated by the new company led by CEO Fabio Lazzerini and president Alfredo Altavilla. A total of 24 national and 56 international flights are to be operated.
Although most flights will be operated between Rome and Milan, ITA will also fly to international destinations on the first day of activity. Three flights will be operated from Milan to Brussels, three from Milan to Paris, two from Rome to Amsterdam and two to Paris, one from Rome to Frankfurt, Munich, London, Madrid, Nice, Tunis. One of the planes will be redecorated with celebratory livery born in 2021.
The maintenance and handling branches of Alitalia is being tendered at a later date by the extraordinary administration. The company’s future will not be ‘stand-alone’, as the president of Ita Altavilla underlined in past days. “ITA’s destiny is to be integrated into large groups on condition of equal dignity with the other members of the company alliance and not as it happened in the past to Alitalia to be treated as the poor relative of the alliance,” said Alitalia before being sold. With Skyteam or Star Alliance, the decision to join a new alliance could come within the first quarter of 2022.
The fleet of 52 aircraft includes seven wide-body and forty-five narrow-body planes. By 2022 it is expected to reach 78 aircraft (+26 in 2021) of which 13 are wide-body (+6 in 2021) and 65 narrow-body (+20 in 2021). By 2022, the introduction of new aircraft in the fleet is expected to begin, progressively replacing the older aircraft. At the end of 2025, the fleet will grow to 105 aircraft (23 wide body and 82 narrow-body), with 81 new generation aircraft (77% of the total fleet) to significantly reduce the environmental impact and optimize costs.
The operations will begin with 2,800 employees who have been hired after screening the 30,000 applications received. The number of employees should rise to reach 5,550-5,700 people by the end of the plan in 2025. Should ITA win the tenders announced by Alitalia in Extraordinary Administration relating to the ‘Ground Handling’ and ‘Maintenance’ activities, at the conclusion of the plan, up to 2,650-2,700 personnel will be used for the ‘Ground Handling’ part and of 1,100-1,250 in the area relating to maintenance.
The start-up of ITA operations will be concentrated for the most part on routes chosen based on their profitability, plus a selected number of routes which, even if not immediately profitable, are considered investments to ensure a sustainable presence in the interest of the medium-term market in the country. ITA will focus its activities on the Fiumicino hub and the Milan Linate airport, where it will position itself as the reference airline for business and leisure traffic.
At the start of operations, the company will serve 45 destinations with 61 routes that will rise to 74 destinations and 89 routes in 2025, after the rebalancing process of flights to the long-haul sector, which aims to bridge the connectivity gap of the country. In the long haul, in the IATA Winter 2021 season, ITA will operate connections to New York (from Rome and Milan), Tokyo Haneda, Boston and Miami (all three from Rome). In the IATA Summer 2022 season, the company plans to start new flights to Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Washington and Los Angeles.
On the short and medium-haul, ITA plans to operate at the departure connections from Fiumicino and Linate with the leading European destinations plus numerous other international routes served by Rome (including, for example, those for Madrid, Athens, Tel Aviv, Cairo, Tunis and Algiers). On the domestic network, ITA will guarantee a broad coverage of national airports, serving 21 airports in the country with stable flight operations and a number of frequencies and timetables that best meet the needs of business and leisure customers.