Is Air Italy In Trouble?

If the Italian Government does end up investing (again) and pulling up Alitalia, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Air Italy fail.

I get what they were going for, but there doing it too fast. They cannot capture the new markets as they hoped and while trying to they are now losing their old markets. This is the risk and they unfortunately got the worst of both sides.

It would have been better for them to take the planes first and then expand as they got them.

The relevant question is *why* the fast rollout and the ensuing pullback?

Seems Air Italy isn't a useful tool in ending the UAE/Saudi-led blockade of Qatar, so presumably gets de-emphasized. It's unclear the toll the blockade has taken on the Qatari economy, but they've spent $1.5 billion on PR and lobbying alone since the start of the crisis.

I think the first mistake was from changing it from Meridian to Air Italy. meridian had lots of potential without the large ambitions of Qatar. I think they could have done with getting ONLY a few new 787s and 737s with the investment from Qatar to replace their raging fleet... not 30 and 20!!!Meridian also made it sound like an authentic Italian boutique airline, but like said above, they've gone for new high profile markets while leaving the markets they're good at.

In my experience, the problem comes from work ethics in Italy were laziness and and sub-par service is the norm. Same applies in Spain except maybe in Cataluna

Shocked. Absolutely stunned. Seriously, Italy does not need two airlines. The Italian government will sell Sicily before it allows Alitalia to fail. Qatar is learning that Italian unions and the economics of TATL travel to Italy in the off-season, is well, to put it mildly, challenging.

Should I be worrying about my July 2019 flight from MXP to NYC?

The populist-nationalist Lega-M5S government is rolling out the red carpet for Alitalia -- the flights to Sicily and Sardinia are just one example. Another example is their plan to sell Trenitalia tickets on the same itinerary as Alitalia flights, which may make Alitalia flights more competitive for tourists than Air Italy flights. (And also Trenitalia more competitive for tourists than the "private option" Italo high-speed rail operator.)

If the PD was still in power, I would feel good about Air Italy's future. But this is a government that will be happy to watch Air Italy collapse, if it means more business for a pseudo-nationalized Alitalia.

@Real Alpha Male

Please spare us your racism.

Lucky
It’s a bit more complicated then that.
There are different issues at play here;
Foremost the rights to fly it Sardinia and Sicily (to a lesser extent) Are Granted by the Italian government to airlines based on what is called “continuità territoriale” ie “territory continuity”.
Essentially the government subsidises routes to airlines so that airports on l’essere connectable island points (Olbia, Cagliari, Comiso and Catania) are not left with out of this world prices.
Prior To meridiana Aga Khan has “Ali Sarda” which was essentially created to bring passengers to Olbia and it’s “Costa smeraldo”.
Obviously with Alitalia’s current chapter 11 issues the government decided to grant Alitalia for those rights...but for a main issue: Air Italy in Milan is trying to make a hub in Malpensa, whilst territory continuity wants Linate (city airport).
Air ITALY has the right business model with wanting to hub in Malpensa - but without feeding planes it can’t manage short haul.
Alitalia itself had 2 flights: JFK once a day (+1 delta flight) and Tokyo Narita 5 times a week -
With very 2 peanut flights to Rome a day and nothing more.
So Air Italy can’t make Malpensa work easily and can’t fill flights ... whilst Milan needs those planes they might have chosen stupidly to say the least!
Bangkok has 5 times weekly Thai flights, Delhi 5 times weekly Jet - and both can be easily reached through emirates (4 flights a day) Qatar itself (twice daily) or Etihad (1x).
The west coast North America routes Are the ones Which will make money; Milan has been craving LA since 29 years.
SQ itself wanted a 5th freedom flight but couldn’t get it...emirates was trying also for LA but the (fake) agreement with the US now doesn’t allow for or.
My bet:
Air ITALY will keep SF and LA, probably introduce 2 other North America routes and in time (2020) try for Narita, Haneda (a winner with the olimpics) or Osaka, Seul and another Asian country.

I live in Milan and the irony is that they’re blasting ads all across the city with destinations that are not even available anymore (BKK/DEL) and flaunting new ones they might not even launch (LAX/SFO)

@Anthony

Dude that’s not racist, that’s fact. I’m in Sicily at this exact second. Been here for four months. I’m literally amazed these people have a country. Everything is covered in garbage, nobody works and in general resembles Abuja much more than any city/region in Europe.

Truthfully, this is what collapse looks like. While I’ve here, floods have killed scores and there’s been no ability by the government to respond. Services are nonexistent. When you’re here, you’re on own. I cannot wait to get out of here.

@ Addison -- I'm not sure where you are in Sicily, but I'd strongly contest that nobody works (although unemployment is extremely high in Sicily). Keep in mind as well that there are historical and political realities that have resulted in what you're seeing now. It's not really a "work ethic" problem in Sicily, but rather a culture of resignation stemming from being a perpetually-conquered people. Centuries of la miseria compounded by war and mass emigration to America in the early half of the 1900's exacerbated the problems of poverty, and left the island without a young workforce that could have aided economic recovery efforts.

The note that "there’s been no ability by the government to respond" is absolutely true, has been a hallmark of how Sicily has been administered for thousands of years, and is a large part of why the mafia came to power. I had a landlady grumble to me once that she would have happily continued paying pizzo, if it meant the trash was being collected. Instead she has to send taxes to Rome, and -- well, you can see the result.

Just to add a bit of macroeconomics: Italy has officially entered into recession in the last quarter of 2018, i.e. its GDP is shrinking. Italy is the only European country in recession right now.

Now an economy entering into recession is definitely not the best moment to build up any business, let alone an airline in such a highly competitive environment. Therefore slowing down the expansion makes perfect sense.

Meridiana had terrible old planes but good routes. Jfk-nap was so successful 3 days a week, June to August that they increased it to 7 days a week May to October. The planes were always packed. Not sure why they took that successful route away. Air italy is double the price and now we have a layover in Milan.

Hi.
Greetings from the beautiful Maldives.
It seems there are scheduled direct flights from Male', Maldives to Milan. I am planning a trip to Milan in the fall of 2020. Is it advisable to purchase tickets from Air Italy well in advance to cut down travel costs?
Thanks.

Air Italy BLOWS!

IM FILING A LAWSUIT!!!’

So I arrive with my wife and 8 MONTH OLD son at Milan MXP 2.5 hours before my flight back to Toronto YYZ

1 of my bags was 5kg over weight but combined weight of 2 bags was on target

Check in counter made me shift weight around bags at the counter. I f**ked around with this for 30 minutes and some hag at Air Italy came over to me and said “you need to hurry we’re really busy”. There were ZERO people in line at this point

They never gave me an option just to pay extra for the over weight bag by the way

Anyway after 30 minutes of arguing with them they checked 2 bags but said “you're out of time” and wouldn’t take my sons bag so I had to schlep it across the airport

We get to customs (leaving the country) and there are 300 people in line. There are 10 customs booths and 2 ARE OPEN. There is a “customer service” guy there and EVERYBODY is complaining they are going to miss their flight

Nobody prioritized the passengers and the customer service idiot was a waste of oxygen

The Air Italy gate agent calls me when we are almost through customs and says “we are waiting for you”

I say I’m 5 minutes away waiting at God damn customs with 2 of 10 counters open

We run to the gate about 500m away after customs and the ASSHOLES CLOSED THE GATE AND STRANDED ME, MY WIFE AND SON IN MILAN

Not to mention the flight was delayed 30 minutes and didn’t push back from the gate and we watched them take our bags off the plane and just sit there

Was any busy from Air Italy there? No!

WAIT IT GETS BETTER!

We go to the ticket counter after collecting our bags and waiting AGAIN at customs with now a screaming baby and Air Italy says “oh your tickets are non changeable” so I need to buy 2 new tickets... plus a €200 hotel room plus food

I’m launching a lawsuit, as many “Air Italy Sucks” websites i can launch and a tirade of publicity against these dick smacks until I get compensation of this entire episode refunded

THEY COMPLETELY RUINED MY VACATION !!!

@Anthony
And get Abuja out of your mouth.
You are racist. I guess you feed and house everyone in Sicily, seeing as no one works over there, but you.

I meant @alphamale

Richard - Buy travel insurance, also known as Peace of Mind, especially when traveling with kids!

Hi Ben, these comments all date back to 2019. What is the situation re flights to Olbia for May 2020? Who has been awarded this route? Thank you