The maiden flight AZ 2008 is programmed for October 15th. An Airbus 319 is scheduled to take off from Fiumicino Airport in Rome at 6.30 a.m. and fly to Linate City Airport in Milan. The flight number comes from the old Alitalia. The insolvent airline also handles ticket sales. The flight will then be operated by ITA, which will rise like a phoenix from the ashes of Alitalia in two weeks. However, turbulence is hampering preparations for the restart.
ITA boss Alfredo Altavilla has to clear a lot of hurdles in the final spurt. The start-up only started hiring staff ten days ago. Because no agreement was reached with the unions on the employment contracts, the airline is now concluding contracts directly with the individual applicants. It will initially take 2800 employees on board, who will be offered salaries reduced by 30 percent. The unions, on the other hand, are in a storm. The climate in Rome is also being heated up by the worries of the more than 10,500 Alitalia employees who are demanding an extension of their short-time allowance until 2025. A week ago strikers blocked the motorway to the Roman airport for three hours. Protest actions take place almost every day in the capital.
The transition from Alitalia to ITA is also bumpy. The government had to intervene on Friday to get the acting administrators of Alitalia to approve training courses for flight personnel. If pilots and flight attendants have not completed the prescribed courses, flight control cannot approve their switch to ITA. “We hope that there will be no more hurdles because the situation is bad enough,” says trade unionist Salvatore Pellecchia.
ITA and the Roman government are sticking to the start date despite the difficulties. “We know that highly complex decisions have to be made and that time is very short,” said Transport Minister Enrico Giovannini. The national airline will take off on October 15 with one foot on the brakes. Due to low passenger interest and low number of bookings, it is only taking off with part of its small fleet, which currently consists of 52 Alitalia aircraft. She also lacks permits for long-haul flights. At the same time, airline boss Altavilla is focusing on growth and has now ordered 59 new aircraft from Airbus.
With its ambitious long-haul plans, the new airline would fly directly against German competition Lufthansa
Unlike Alitalia, ITA relies on a single aircraft manufacturer – Airbus. In doing so, she wants to save costs, especially when it comes to pilot training and maintenance. The recently published agreement with Airbus and the leasing company Air Lease Corporation (ALC) makes it clear that ITA will also play an important role on long-haul routes.
ITA ordered 28 aircraft directly from Airbus, including ten long-haul jets of the type A330neo, eleven machines of the A320neo-Family and seven smaller ones A220. Another five come from ALC A330neos, eleven A320neo and 15 A220. In total, ITA is procuring 59 machines that are to be delivered between the second quarter of 2022 and the end of 2025. Another 25 aircraft are to be leased from other leasing companies over the next four years.
The airline wants to more than double its fleet in the next four years from 52 to 105 jets – many of the older planes are to be decommissioned by then. In 2025, 70 percent of the fleet is to consist of the latest generation of machines, which have lower emissions and are kerosene-saving. This would have brought it back roughly the size of its notoriously deficit predecessor as Italy’s national airline, but according to a decision by the European Commission, it does not have to defend its legacy. The Commission recently decided that ITA would not be Alitalia’s legal successor.
For Airbus, the order is an important success in times that are still difficult due to the pandemic. Alitalia also mainly used Airbus jets, but was primarily a Boeing customer for long-haul aircraft and flew regional aircraft from the Brazilian manufacturer Embraer.
Particularly noteworthy is the attempt by the ITA to return to the long-haul business on a large scale. 15 new machines are coming from Airbus and ALC, and ITA also says it wants the latest Airbus large-capacity model A350 procure, but does not yet reveal how many. As a rule, sub-fleets with fewer than ten aircraft make no economic sense. ITA also has access to old Alitalia jets. With such ambitious plans, she would fly directly to Lufthansa, which draws a lot of long-haul business, especially from northern Italy, via the hubs in Munich and Frankfurt.