ITA wants to be profitable quickly. But the competition from low-cost airlines is great.
It’s over after 74 years. On Thursday, just before midnight, the last Alitalia plane landed in Rome. The legendary Italian airline has been in deficit for years.
ITA’s first successor airline takes off on Friday morning. The word “Born in 2021” is written on the machine in green, white and red letters. With this, ITA confirms that it wants to be a new airline.
In fact, the International Trade Agreement differs from Alitalia in key respects. Instead of 10,000, it employs only 2,800 people. Instead of more than 100 planes, you start with 50 planes. In addition, ITA wants to be profitable by 2023. This would differentiate it from Alitalia. This loses several hundreds of millions of euros every year.
We will mainly fly short distances between cities.
Its president, Fabio Lazzerini, praised the journalists. “We will mainly fly short distances between cities, more often so that business customers can travel flexibly,” he said. He hopes that these wealthy clients will help the IT Authority succeed.
However, this will not be an easy task. Because many low-cost airlines have long been flying these routes, and they have done so with great success. In Milan, for example, EasyJet, Ryanair and Wizz Air are already clearly dominant. They grow very strongly in Rome.
In order to be successful in the medium term, the ITA must also be integrated into an international network of airlines. According to Lazzerini, which one should be decided by June.
ITA can only withdraw thanks to state funds
For now, ITA will remain a state airline. It could only take off thanks to the financial injection from the Italian state. This initially invested 700 million euros. The same amount must be added later.
This start-up government assistance reminds us of the beginning of Switzerland 20 years ago. At the time, the federal government also gave the Swiss airline an A-Fonds-perdu contribution, worth 1 billion francs.
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