Now newco can fly and sell tickets – Corriere.it

Air Italy is now in fact an airline and is authorized not only to fly, but also to sell tickets. The National Civil Aviation Authority has issued the Air Operator Certificate for the new publicly owned company set up to relaunch Alitalia. The ENAC document confirms that ITA has the professional capacity and business organization necessary to ensure that its aircraft operate in safe conditions following the test flight on the afternoon of August 16 last. ENAC confirms this in a note. According to the documents, the ICAO (United Nations Civil Aviation Agency) code for the new company is ITY.

the document

ITA can take off. Pierluigi de Palma, President of ENAC, explains in the press release that the hope is that the new national reference company will contribute to the restart of the sector, contributing in a decisive way to overcoming the difficulties caused by the pandemic crisis. The aircraft operator’s license constitutes the final verdict regarding legal, administrative, economic and financial examinations, as well as operational technical procedures, adds Alessio Quaranta, Director General of the authority. With the airline operator certificate and license in possession, the airline can start selling tickets.

Next steps

The following steps are quite sensitive. Before it can sell tickets for its flights – which must take off from October 15, 2021 – the ITA must wait for Alitalia to remove its routes from sales systems. But this, as explained by ministerial sources to Courier service, stipulates that the Ministry of Economic Development will authorize the three commissioners of Alitalia to remove these connections, while maintaining flights until October 14, the last scheduled day of activity for the Italian airline. Delivery could take a few hours, in the optimal scenario, or even a few days because – sources go on – each step requires official communications through certified email boxes.

Selling commercial branches

In the coming weeks, the new ITA will also commit itself to participating in the various calls for bids for Alitalia assets requested by the European Commission as evidence of discontinuity between the two companies of equal importance. In fact, the MilleMiglia brand, handling (ground services), maintenance and loyalty program will end up in the auction. As is already known, ITA will not be able to compete to acquire MilleMiglia, but will have to create its own loyalty program, while the results of handling and maintenance calls should not arrive before winter and spring 2022. An expected take-off with 52 aircraft will climb to 78 at the end of the year Next and to 105 in 2025.

Alitalia passengers

On the Alitalia front, on the other hand, we are waiting for provisions for passengers who have bought a flight with the company since October 15, since the carrier is no longer operating because it has been replaced by ITA. like Corriere della Sera Exclusively at the beginning of August, there were at least 255,000 passengers Those booked and therefore must be compensated or re-protected on flights operated by other airlines. The government has allocated 100 million euros to each of them.

national carriers

Air Italy has been added to the list of other national carriers. In order: Ego Airways, Air Dolomiti (the Italian subsidiary of the Lufthansa group), Alitalia (the Italian airline and the regional division Cityliner), Blue Panorama (from the Uvet group) and Neos (from the Alpitour group). Air Italy (the former Meridiana) still appears on Enac’s list, but its license has been suspended since August 25, 2020, while Ernest disappeared and grounded in January last year.