After close to 75 years in the skies,
Alitalia will run its last flight on Thursday evening with a
service from Cagliari to Rome.
On Friday it will be replaced by a slimmed-down incarnation of
the former national flag-carrier, ITA, which stands for Italia
Trasporto Aereo.
Although Alitalia has a glorious past, it has been making losses
since 2008 and has been in extraordinary administration for many
years.
In order to give the green light to the Italian State's
1.35-billion-euro capital injection for the creation of ITA, the
European Commission demanded that the new company be a
substantial break with Alitalia, which has benefitted from a
series of State bailouts.
The Alitalia name may not be dead though.
An initial auction to sell off the brand attracted no bids and
ITA said the starting price was too high.
But an agreement on the name may be on the horizon.
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