“There is an urban legend, according to which Italy cannot do without a national airline. But this is a somewhat blurred view of reality. Would we really see tourism in our country compromised without Alitalia? The answer is absolutely negative, and the figures prove it ”. Antonio Bordoni, professor of airline management at the Luiss University Business School, also gives a drastic judgment on yet another bailout of Alitalia, this time for 3 billion euros: “The company is kept alive with continuous injections of public subsidies even though in the absence of a clear business plan “.
His accusations are two: Alitalia is inessential for the country and does not have an industrial plan. To begin with, what are the figures that show that a national airline is not essential to Italy?
“I quote the numbers of the World Tourism Barometer and the Bank of Italy on tourism. In 2017 Italy attracted 58.7 million foreign tourists with revenues of 39.2 billion, in 2018 these figures rose to 62.1 million and 41.7 billion, and in 2019, the last normal pre-Covid year, we reached 65 million arrivals from abroad with receipts of 44.3 billion. And in the same three-year period the total number of passengers in Italian airports increased from 174.6 to 192.7 million. These are boom trends. But what was Alitalia’s contribution to this growth? Absolutely null ”.
Didn’t he do his part?
“No. Alitalia has not only not actively contributed to this boom, but has not even been able to take advantage of it passively. In 2017 it carried 21.7 million passengers and in 2019 the same number, which fell to 11.29% of the total number of passengers in Italy, moreover continuing to lose money while other companies earned. How can we say that that 11.29% of traffic, moreover at a heavy loss, is indispensable for tourism in Italy? ”.
Maybe Alitalia redeems itself by looking at a longer period.
“Worse than ever. Expanding the view to 2014, in that year the passengers passing through Italian airports were 150.24 million, and in that same year Alitalia transported 23.37 million. In 2019, passengers at Italian airports rose to 192 million (+ 28.30%) while those of Alitalia fell by 1.60 million (-6.87%) in the same period. It was not a market problem, on the contrary the market was booming, it was a problem entirely for Alitalia ”.
Have Italians got used to flying with foreign companies, or in any case different from Alitalia?
“More than a choice it was a necessity. How could they have done differently with a former national airline that, in the face of the increase in tourist demand, has been able to do nothing but cut the fleet, staff, flights and destinations?
Then we come to the second question that you raise, namely the lack of an industrial plan, even in the face of the 3 new billion to come. If we asked the top management of Alitalia, or the government as a shareholder, they would certainly answer: there is an industrial plan, and how. What do you think is missing instead?
“Business plan means planning the markets and destinations to fly to, the type of clientele you want to capture, and the type of airline to be adopted. Do you think it possible to establish these fundamental factors with a fleet that every day that passes we learn to be scaled down in numbers and without knowing what types of aircraft you want to operate with? “.
Specifically, can you give us some examples of a possible and realistic industrial plan? Assuming that Alitalia cannot now follow the model of giants such as Lufthansa or Air France, what other examples could it draw inspiration from?
“I do not give advice, but as an example, Alitalia could choose to do like the Greek Aegean Airlines, which was worse off than Alitalia but has recovered by carving out a specific role as a regional airline in the Mediterranean. Here, making this choice, and then consistently taking all the other decisions that follow, would mean setting up a real industrial plan. Or, another example, we could do like the Spanish Iberia and the Portuguese Tap, which have specialized in long-range connections with Central and South America. Again: I am not giving this advice, but I cite an example of a choice on which to base a business plan worthy of the name. For now, I don’t see anything like that ”.