Italian flag air carrier Alitalia (AZ/AZA), a member of the global airline association SkyTeam, ceased all flight operations on Thursday, October 14th. The last flight was AZ1586 from Cagliari to Rome (“Fiumicino – Leonardo da Vinci” Airport) with a 13-year-old Airbus A320, registratered as EI-DSV. The decision to shut down the Italian carrier was made in August this year. Already on Friday, October 15th, a new Italian national airline ITA – Italia Transporto Aereo (AZ/ITY) will start with flight operations.
Alitalia was founded in September 1946, under the name Aerolinee Italiane Internazionale. A year later, they started to use the name Alitalia. The first flight was on May 5th, 1947 from Turin to Catania and Rome with a Fiat G.12 aircraft. Since 2001, they were a member of the global airline association SkyTeam. Alitalia already went bankrupt in 2008, when it was taken over by a smaller competing air carrier AirOne (AP/ADH), and continued to operate under the Alitalia brand. For many years, Alitalia had a code-share co-operation with the Croatian flag air carrier Croatia Airlines (OU/CTN).
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Throughout history Alitalia has flown to all continents in the world. Little is known that Alitalia had a short lived route to Zagreb, when they operated up to two daily flights from Milan to Zagreb. They also operated daily flights from Milan to Split, but only during the summer. ATR-42 and ATR-72 from the fleet of the regional subsidiary Alitalia Express (XM/SMX) operated these flights at the begining. These two routes were later moved to the Austrian regional carrier AirAlps (A6/LPV), which operated smaller Dornier Do-328 on many regional routes on behalf of Alitalia. In recent years, Alitalia has flown only on seasonal summer routes from Milan and Rome to Dubrovnik and Split, up to maximum two weekly flights. Before the pandemic, they were operated with Airbus A320 and Airbus A319, however this year they operated only flights from Rome to Dubrovnik and Split, with a smaller Embraer ERJ-175. The last flight from Croatia was on August 30th, AZ531 from Dubrovnik to Rome.
New air carrier ITA hasn’t yet announced any route to Croatia.
