The story of Ita began this morning with the take-off of the first flight from Milan Linate to Bari at 6.30: the carrier landed in the Apulian capital after 65 minutes, with 60 passengers on board. «Today the Italian flag carrier is born» said the managing director Fabio Lazzerini introducing the new company: «We had to say it with a name while preserving our freshness. We have a new name that we are ready to show today. Ita Airways, from today the name of the company is this. It is a name that looks ahead, to the future, but a bit of the past remains. We wanted to keep the colors, green and red are the same as those of Alitalia, and the purchase of the brand yesterday reflects this logic: do not waste a value ».
The manager then indicated that «the industrial plan of Ita envisages three main objectives: first profitability, and on this there is an immense discontinuity with respect to the past; sustainability, which we decline on three parts, economic, environmental and social; and connectivity “. Lazzerini therefore insisted on flexibility which “means starting with the right size to be able to accelerate or slow down depending on the market”.
Looking to the future, the president Alfredo Altavilla explained that the company was not born to be a stand alone operator forever: «It would be an unrealistic goal, a useless desire for greatness. Ita was created to become an important and strategic element within one of the large sector networks. I look in any direction, wherever there is the opportunity to create value for Ita. It is a process that we will start working on from next week, we believe it is important to close it by 2022 ».
For now the carriers are still branded Alitalia, but in the group’s plan there are all blue airplanes with the Ita Airways logo in white gold, white wings, tricolor on the tail: “We want something that represents us with honor in the world” explained the director marketing Giovanni Perosino.
Meanwhile, in Fiumicino – where the Alitalia workers’ garrison organized by the confederates is underway from 10 to 18 – there are protest choruses, the sound of drums and whistles, accompanied by the clapping of hands against the windows of the terminal, to draw attention passengers inside: “We are Alitalia” and “Work, rights, dignity”, the most repeated choruses. I also lit some smoke bombs.