Alitalia finally makes its final flight

After 74 years Alitalia is no more.

The day that many thought would never come has finally come. Alitalia is no more.

After decades and decades of loss making and bailouts, Italy’s national carrier has made its last flight.

The final flight is AZ1586 from Cagliari to Rome Fiumicino. The Airbus A320, registration EI-DSV, departed 14 October 2021, from CAG at 2225 and arrived at FCO at 2323.

From midnight tonight, Alitalia is no more.

BUT it is being replaced by Italia Trasporto Aereo (ITA). From 15 October, ITA starts operating in place of Alitalia. ITA is wholly owned by the Italian government.

ITA will get almost all of Alitalia’s routes and assets. It is even keeping the carrier code of AZ.

So what’s different about ITA?

ITA will have a lot less staff, at least to begin with. It will transfer in about 2800 of Alitalia’s 11,000 staff.

ITA will start with 52 aircraft – all from Alitalia which had over 70 aircraft. It will be an all Airbus airline.

The new company is buying 28 new aircraft from Airbus including:

  • 11 A321 neo
  • 10 A330
  • 7 A220

It also plans to lease 31 aircraft from Air Lease Corporation, consisting of:

  • 15 A220s
  • 2 A320neo
  • 9 A321neo
  • 5 A330-900neo

Air Lease will delivery the 31 leased aircraft to the airline progressively beginning in the second half of 2022 through early 2025. 

Although so much looks the same let us all hope that the future is very different from Alitalia.

N.B. Image credit: pkozmin from Pixabay

Internet links

Alitalia (AZ)

ITA (AZ)

Airbus

Air Lease Corporation