Ad Intrieri's announcement: the 'new' Aeroitalia will be called Air Italy. And declares war on ITA over Linate slots
The 'new' Aeroitalia will be called Air Italy. Yes, just like the former Meridiana company closed in 2020. This is the [...]
AeroItalia
LIN
The 'new' Aeroitalia will be called Air Italy. Yes, just like the former Meridiana company closed in 2020. It is this the brand that CEO Gaetano Intrieri registered Following the decision of the court in Rome that forces Italy's third-largest fleet carrier to change its name and livery, deeming them too similar to Alitalia's, a brand that is owned by competitor ITA Airways.
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Intrieri had anticipated the move to The Flight Club in late August, saying that in any case his company's new name would have a reference to Italy in it. The Ad also explained that the adoption of the Air Italy name is possible "because more than five years have passed since the carrier bearing that name ceased to exist.". And the puts it safe from further appeals, since it has already been used without anyone (in that case Alitalia itself) batting an eyelid.
Intrieri also reiterated that "ITA has won an interlocutory appeal, while the actual lawsuit is still pending and will not be resolved until a year from now. Only then will we see who is really right, between us and them. And if the court should say that we are in the right, well then we will ask for quite a few million in damages."
It will also change, as anticipated, the livery, which, however, "will retain the tricolor. We showed ITA three sketches of possible colors of our planes, and ITA considered them all to be correct. And everyone keeps white, red and green." The ad predicts that the new livery may be unveiled "by the first half of November, with an event that we plan to organize for the occasion. The first plane with the new livery and name will be seen, most likely, by Summer 2026, and then it will take a year for all of them to be repainted." He adds.
In the meantime, however, Intrieri 'declares war' on ITA on another front: that of the slots that Italy's largest airline holds at Milan's Linate airport. "Ita, if it is indeed a new entity compared to Alitalia as it claims, had no right to inherit Alitalia's slots at a strategic airport like Linate," he says. And for this announces that his company's lawyers are already filing complaints with the Italian Antitrust Authority and the EU Commission in Brussels.
"We will ask whether ITA had legal entitlement to receive so many slots at Linate. Instead, we believe that Alitalia's slots should return to the relevant regulatory body, which is Assoclearance, and then be reallocated equally to all companies operating at the airport, also taking into account existing waiting lists. And we call for what should have been done four years ago to be done today. We are today at Linate the second largest airline by number of passengers, with about 10% market share. We want to grow further, but today with these conditions it is impossible." In short, the 'Italian skies war' seems far from over.
