Ita Airways President Pappalardo: "Dedicated flights entirely for business class being studied."
"We are studying a new route that can, although it is still too early to tell, have flights dedicated entirely to the [...]
ITA Airways
Star Alliance
"We are studying a new route that may, although it is still too early to tell, have flights dedicated entirely to business class". It is only a hint but of great interest what the president of Ita Airways, Sandro Pappalardo, ago talking about the prospects for the company's future business plan. We met him in the Ita's booth at the In Italia Village, set up in Genoa for the celebrations of the arrival of the Amerigo Vespucci world tour, the "most beautiful ship in the world."
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Pappalardo met with the Ita stand's operators and experienced the experiential journey - dubbed "mappasogno" - created with lights and images inside a large digital dome called "volaverso." A few minutes of leisure and then returned to the carrier's prospects, between first budgets of Lufthansa's entry and ideas for the future, in Italy and worldwide.
Someone has called the Amerigo Vespucci "a floating embassy"-you could say ITA Airways is an embassy with wings. Is that what your presence here in Genoa today is all about?
Whoever defined Amerigo Vespucci and ITA in this way I think rightly summarized these two years of all-Italian history. Amerigo Vespucci departed from Genoa two years ago, today it returns to Genoa where after traveling all over the world, and it was not only the Navy that moved, it was not only the armed forces that moved, it was the country system Italy that moved. We have taken, thanks to Amerigo Vespucci and thanks to all the cooperating ministries, Italian excellence around the world. There is a lot of demand for Italy, and ITA obviously wants to do its part, which is why we also married this extraordinary project with this booth. ITA is an ambassador of Italy, of our Bella Italia around the world, and of the excellence of our economy.
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Lufthansa's entry has already had positive feedback. Looking ahead to a 2025 of adjustment and a 2026 of new investment. How?
The synergy with the Lufthansa Group has already begun. January 17 marked the opening of a truly historic page for our civil aviation, domestic and European. The inclusion of the Lufthansa group in ITA represents a further opportunity for growth for a company that in any case saw its 100th aircraft the day before yesterday, a company that started 3 and a half years ago with 52 aircraft, and thanks truly to the tenacity of 5,000 people today has achieved amazing results.
What are the projects in place?
The synergy with the Lufthansa Group, I was saying, is another opportunity for growth. There are a lot of integration projects, 63, and that we are trying now to go and synthesize in an industrial plan that within 4-5 weeks should be finished with the opening of new routes in high-spending markets, an eye to business, an eye to all the people who want more and more to come to Italy because the search for Italy is really something that is growing more and more and we want to do our part not only for the company itself but also for the Italian system, because bringing customers to Italy means not only making turnover for us, but it means increasing the economic induced that comes from tourism.
When you refer to an increased focus on the business segment, what do you mean?
We are studying a new route that may, but it is still too early to say, have flights dedicated entirely to business class, but again it is still premature because we are studying everything and it would not be correct to talk about it yet.
Are there any new routes in sight?
We are studying the whole landscape, and then, as we know, the geopolitical situation in the world is very particular at this time. We are waiting for the possible reopening of the flight to Moscow, we are waiting for Ben-Gurion, they were once important routes for us.
Territorial continuity for Genoa airport? Proposing a bill to recognize subsidized fares for Ligurians had been Pd deputy Lorenzo Basso...
Obviously these are not choices that the company has to make, these are choices that policy makes. It has worked in other regions, so why not? Certainly it's a very good incentive for the companies, and therefore also for us. For us, Liguria is a very important, strategic territory, we have very good relations with the government of the region. We are imagining new paths related to the business plan, we are studying it right now.
Last question: what has been the feedback from the partnership of the Volare and Miles and More loyalty programs
So far so positive. Clearly through this union between ITA and the Lufthansa Group there are so many new opportunities for our customers. See more than 100 new destinations around the world and see the possibility for our customers to access 140 more lounges around the world and many other things. So certainly the feedback momentarily is highly positive. Waiting times at some airports have also decreased: in Berlin we went to the T1 terminal, in Frankfurt to the T2 terminal, terminals already used by LH precisely to make a faster connectivity and then to have some be able to decrease airport waiting times."
