75 years of Italian aviation history came to an end on Friday as the country's new national airline took to the skies, drawing to a close the story of its beleaguered and bankrupt predecessor.
ITA airways. Photo: rarrarorro / Shutterstock
A green ribbon barrier with the ITA airways logo inside the Leonardo da Vinci airport in Rome, Italy. Photo: rarrarorro / Shutterstock
The official handover from Alitalia to Italia Trasporto Aereo (ITA) was signalled when an early morning flight touched down in the southern city of Bari, ending many tumultuous years of financial difficulties and expensive rescue attempts by the Italian government.
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It cost just €90 million for ITA to take over the Alitalia brand - much less than the €290 million original asking price. While the deal included the rights to the green, white and red livery, the name Alitalia will be abandoned completely.
In a deal signed off by the European Commission, ITA is to be economically independent and not liable for any of the illegal state aid given to Alitalia.
The new airline will also need to be profitable by the end of its 2021-2025 business plan and the company chair, Alfredo Altavilla, said that it is searching for a deal with a larger carrier, as it is too small to survive alone.
"ITA will start holding talks to reach a deal [with another player] from next week, aiming to complete it by 2022," Altavilla said.
Earlier this month, the chief executive of the US' Delta, Ed Bastian, revealed that he was in discussions with ITA about potential joint ventures.
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As part of the deal between Rome and Brussels to enable the new airline to operate, state-owned ITA will start off with a total of 52 jets and 2,800 employees, markedly down from its predecessor's 110 planes and around 10,000 employees.
ITA will begin by serving 44 destinations, rising to 75 by 2025. These include major European airport hubs like Paris Charles de Gaulle and London Heathrow, as well as a dozen or so Italian cities. Tickets to transatlantic destinations in the US have already gone on sale.
Alitalia, which during its peak carried celebrities, popes and prime ministers, made its final flight on Thursday night from Rome Fiumicino to Cagliari in Sardinia.
The airline's demise has been met with fury from trade unions over job cuts and opposition politicians.
The company has been facing financial problems for decades and has not posted a profit since the turn of the century.
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Several attempts were made to find a private buyer but after each one failed, Rome then took full control of the flailing airline during the Covid-19 pandemic - a time when the aviation sector was hit hard by strict travel restrictions to control the virus' spread. It was then that the decision was made to create ITA from Alitalia's ashes.
While some of Alitalia's employees have found work at the new national carrier, some 7,000 were not, and their wages will continue to be paid by the state until at least 2022.
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