Alitalia: A New Chapter in a Long Saga

By Massimo Terracina

It seems finalized: the restart of Alitalia, the Italian flagship airline, that is to be reborn for the fourth time over the past 30 years.

The registration at Corte dei Conti (court of auditors), the main control body in the Italian governamental system, of the new-co ITA Italia Trasporto Aereo (Italy Air Transport) officially opens the new “Alitalia chapter”. The green light for the decree of constitution from the auditors body, the maximum level of the accounting judiciary, came after the latest hurdle: the official nomination of Francesco Caio as president and Fabio Lazzerini as CEO, flanked by seven other members of the board of directors.

As anticipated from many unofficial sources, it will be an air company based on “public financing” where the driving force will be the agreement among four ministries -Economy, Transports, Labor and Economic Development- starting with a share capital of €20 millions  that can increase up to €3 billions, as included in the “decreto rilancio” (relaunch decree).

The next operative step will be the first body meeting that should be able, within 30 days, to file the industrial plan and convince the EU of the goodness of the project, and of the fact that new-co should be separated from by bad-co: the current Alitalia.

Of course the third party, the unions, must be satisfied with the industrial plan because they keep asking for a table of confrontation about the key steps to the new operation that has never been summoned. Considering the calendar and based on the timeframe asked by the government, the company should be able to take the first steps by the end of the year.

Few statements, few interviews about the new airline. In recent days, Fabio Lazzerini released some tips about the strategy concerning Ita Cargo, with a strong commitment to the key markets, construing it as a deep revision on the routes, with the aim to increase the long-haul network over the next five years.

Even though the new-co name is officially Ita, it will fly utilising Alitalia logo, as well as the company’s two-character abbreviation -AZ-, the same ticket designator -055- and also the same fidelity program -MilleMiglia.