ITA Airways, the surprise announcement: the Alitalia brand resurfaces. Where we will find it
For the first time, the entire ITA Airways staff made a stop in Milan. The occasion? The inauguration of the new (and [...]
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For the first time, the entire staff of ITA Airways made a stop in Milan. The occasion? The opening of the company's new (and beautiful) offices in Lombardy's capital city.
In this article:
There were President Antonio Turicchi, General Manager Andrea Benassi, Chief Financial Officer Claudio Facciani, and Chief Commercial Office (and CEO of the Volare loyalty program) Emiliana Limosani.
Amidst financial data for the first half of 2024, plans for the fleet, network development, and the closing of the agreement with Lufthansa, the following popped up at the end of the press conference what President Turicchi called "a surprise": a video starts (which may also be a commercial) and at the end there is the words 'ITA Airways, inspired by Alitalia'.
The news of the day was just the reappearance of the Alitalia brand, which ITA (we recall) had purchased for a countervalue of 90 million euros. Is this the first step in reintroducing the old brand for which, it seems, the Germans are crazy about? Apparently not (for now).
It was Turicchi himself who explained that "the Alitalia brand is something we are proud of because it represents a fundamental piece of the history of air transportation in this country. For years it has been a symbol of style, elegance, professionalism, safety. Therefore, we thought it was only right to link it to that of ITA Airways." Yes, but where and when? Answer: "The Alitalia brand will appear on certain touch points, i.e., it will be linked to the ITA brand in specific aspects of the company's business and its relationship with customers". The impression is that it is a test, to assess what effect it will have on passengers. And then decide whether to continue on that path (of the side-by-side of the two logos) or not.
The Milan event was also an opportunity to illustrate some numbers, while waiting for the closing with Lufthansa to get the final green light from the European Commission (which, one hopes, will happen in November). What is certain is that Lufthansa and ITA will have to give up 15 pairs of slots at Linate. While at Fiumicino they will have to encourage the entry of competition on three routes: the Rome-Toronto, the Rome-San Francisco and the Rome-Washington either directly or by boosting connecting traffic to those three destinations through the hubs of competing European airlines.
As for the numbers, they all continue to be up sharply from 2023: the load factor touched 79% (+2%) and is expected to bypass 80% quota in the end-of-2024 calculation; capacity grew by 30%, passenger traffic revenue by 33%, with long-haul growing by 48% and now accounting for 50% of the company's total revenue; the regularity index (i.e., flights operated/not cancelled out of the total) was 99.84%; enrollments in the Volare program have reached 2,450,000, the 36% of which are foreign with trading partners that will become 41 by the end of the year.
The network will see the addition of Dubai on Oct. 27 with Airbus A321neo and of Bangkok on Nov. 16 with A330-900, while from December 20, the Rome-Malé will return again with A330-900.
The renewal of the long-haul fleet will be completed next year, with the release by the end of 2025 of the last A330-200 and the arrival of the 6 A330-900s that are still missing to complete the order with Airbus. While, just in these days, the seventh and final A321neo has arrived at Fiumicino..
The average age of the fleet, which was 14 years in October 2021, has dropped to 7.7 years and will drop to 5 years by the end of 2027. The last of the older generation aircraft (there are still about 30 A319s and A320ceo in the fleet) will see the lease end in 2030, the year when ITA will have a fleet consisting exclusively of new aircraft: the A220, A320neo, A321neo, A330-900 and A350-900.
Of course, decisions made in concert with what, everyone hopes, will have become the company's majority shareholder will have a bearing on the composition of the fleet five to six years from now.
Closing with the accounts, at the end of the year the company expects. A turnover of about 3.7 billion euros and a negative net economic result of 10-12 million euros, with The profit that is expected from 2025 onwards..
