MILAN – The new airline expected to rise from the ashes of beleaguered Italian flag carrier Alitalia will not take to the skies until October as negotiations between Rome and Brussels continue, a government source said yesterday.
It had been expected that the new airline would launch in August to benefit from the peak summer tourism season.
Instead, the new airline “will commence operations in October, marking a break with its predecessor and respecting agreements with Brussels”, said the source.
The decision was taken at a meeting of Prime Minister Mario Draghi on Monday, the source said.
Italy has been in talks with the European Commission for months over plans for the new airline, provisionally called ITA.
A preliminary agreement between the Italian government and the European Commission was announced at the end of May, but talks have since become bogged down.
The commission, charged with policing state aid in the European Union, needs to give the go-ahead to Italy’s €3 billion (RM14.79 billion) bailout of Alitalia, its former flag carrier.
It has insisted that the new airline mark a rupture with Alitalia, and not only by changing the name. The new airline will have a fleet half the size of its predecessor, ground operations will be spun off, and airport slots ceded.
Loss-making Alitalia, whose financial condition worsened under the coronavirus pandemic, had already been placed under state administration in 2017.
Italy struggled in vain to find an outside investor to take it over before eventually deciding to seek approval for a new bailout. – AFP, June 30, 2021
