The Alitalia brand will return to the skies after a few months of interruption, while ITA Airways in the first two and a half months of activity closed with an EBIT of -170 million euros.
ITA Airways, the public company that took the place of Alitalia and bought the historic brand for 90 million euros last October, will revive the brand, the president of the newco Alfredo Altavilla confirmed during the hearing at the Transport Commission of the Chamber. The final decision will be taken by the Board of Directors on January 31st.
After the purchase of the Alitalia name, however, it was put in the drawer because the airline preferred to present itself with a new brand, ITA Airways, to show a greater discontinuity with the past. But, says Altavilla, traditional airlines have multiple brands within their portfolio and the name of Alitalia could be reintroduced for a special division of the Group: “We have always intended to use the brand to integrate it into the commercial offer“. Not for a low-cost division, but possibly for either the European operations or the intercontinental flights.
On the economic front, ITA Airways recorded a negative Ebit equal to -170 million euros from the start of operations (15 October) to the end of the year, “in line with the provisions of industrial plan and despite the presence of halved revenues and the increase in the cost of fuel“. In the two and a half months of 2021, Ita’s revenues amounted to 86 million euros: 76.6 million from passenger transport, 9.4 million euros from cargo.
Source: Corriere della Sera
Reviving the ALITALIA name as a branch/subsidiary of ITA would only create confusion and I personally don’t see where and what would be the benefits…Probably, they should have kept the name for the new company, if that was legally possible.