Alitalia will ultimately be replaced by Italy’s new national airline, Italia Trasporto Aereo, following its bankruptcy in 2017. (ITA). While I’m still unsure of what to anticipate from the new airline, a significant milestone is about to be accomplished.
Alitalia will eventually discontinue ticket sales.
Alitalia has stated that it would cease selling airline tickets on October 15, 2021. As of August 25, tickets for travel on that day are anticipated to be withdrawn. This implies Alitalia is just hours away from suspending ticket sales many weeks in ahead.
Customers who booked Alitalia tickets on or before August 24 and fly on or after October 15 can either obtain a full refund or seek a rebooking on another airline (though the logistics there might be challenging, to put it mildly).
Alitalia’s operations will stop on October 15.
What will the future national airline of Italy resemble?
While much has been said about Alitalia’s successor airline, Italia Trasporto Aereo (ITA), I’m still unsure what we may anticipate from this airline. According to my understanding,
Over the next five years, ITA will get a capital infusion of considerably over a billion euros.
While ITA will acquire some of Alitalia’s assets, the airline will not acquire Alitalia’s frequent flyer program (rather, a new one will be created); this is not because Alitalia is attempting to deceive customers, but rather because the European Commission has refused to allow Alitalia to participate in the open tender for the frequent flyer program.
ITA will expand gradually, beginning with a fleet of 52 planes (including just seven long-haul flights), increasing to 78 planes in 2022 and 105 planes in 2025.
ITA will receive 85 percent of Alitalia’s available slots at Milan’s Linate Airport (LIN) and 43 percent of Alitalia’s available slots at Rome Airport (FCO)
ITA will begin with less than 3,000 people and will expand to 8,600 by 2022. (up until recently Alitalia had around 10,000 employees)
There had been discussion of ITA perhaps purchasing new planes, but how that plays out is anyone’s guess, and it does not appear to be imminent.
I’m not certain that the Italian government or taxpayers are truly prevailing in this case. While Alitalia was a shambles, having to cede so many precious slots at Italy’s major airports to competitors will make it considerably more difficult for the new airline to flourish.
With Alitalia suspending ticket sales as of tomorrow, it appears as though ITA’s new website will be shortly – I’m eager to see what it looks like, since it should provide some further insight into what we may anticipate from the airline.
ITA may acquire a portion of Alitalia’s assets.
In conclusion
Although it’s difficult to imagine, Alitalia will eventually stop operations in October, with the airline being replaced by new national carrier ITA. This proposal has received complete clearance, and all Alitalia flights scheduled for October 15 and beyond should be removed from the bookings system in the coming hours.
While we have a basic idea of what the plan is for ITA, it seems as though the specifics are still being worked out, given the lengthy process that the national airline must go through in order to acquire part of Alitalia’s assets.
with information from onemileatatime.com
