[cwoodward]

A very interesting article from airways magazine

Italian Flag Carrier ITA Airways Is Born

1 user thanked author for this post.

GivingupBA

[AMcWhirter]

ITA is now offering a Status Match.

https://www.itaspa.com/en_en/volare/statusmatch.html

[AMcWhirter]

Former Alitalia staff strip off uniforms in protest.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-10115607/Ex-Alitalia-flight-attendants-strip-uniforms-undergarments-pay-protest.html

[rferguson]

[quote quote=1114345]ITA is now offering a Status Match.

https://www.itaspa.com/en_en/volare/statusmatch.html%5B/quote%5D

Status matching to ITA jsut became a lot more attractive now it is confirmed they will join Skyteam!

I applied to status match my Gold Card last week and they replied within a couple days confirming my status match to their ‘Executive’ level which I believe is the highest.

Oddly though, I still don’t have anything like a membership number. Strange.

[sparkyflier]

I have just seen the last postings in this thread, and clicked on the “status match ” links, which like RF thought a Skyteam equivalent to BA Gold/Oneworld Emerald would be rather nice, but …. nothing happens..

Strange..

[sparkyflier]

Also just looked at the website, but..it does not allow me to switch from Italy and Italian to GB and English..

[transtraxman]

So the similarities between Alitalia and ITA just increase and increase. A “new” airline just walks into Skyteam after less than one month´s existence.That must be a record. I do not know enough to comment on the crossover between the Frequent Flier and Tier programmes of Skyteam and ITA. However,as a competitor, I would insist the European Commission looks at this whole question in detail since they were the ones to impose those strict conditions of complete separation on ITA from Alitalia. Now I just get the impression that it was all playing to the gallery and whitewashing any investigation before it happened.

It is just as well that Vueling obtained the subsidised flights from Sardinia to Milan and Rome, otherwise the help given to ITA would be too blatant.

We should keep a close look on ITA otherwise the interests of our own airlines, be them Ryanair, Vueling or Easyjet or whoever, will be unfairly jeopardised.

[cwoodward]

A revealing ITA press release.

2,764 flights were operated in the 14 days following the airline’s operational start-up on 15th October
Of these, 1,942 were domestic and 822 were international.

The on-time performance was at 84.1% for departures and 84.6% for arrivals, with load factors at 57%. This seems to be a fairly solid performance.
The release also mentions that in the week from 18 to 23 of October the airlines passenger numbers target was surpassed by 50%.
On 23rd the company broke the record set by the airline in its first day of sales passing the 2 million euros mark.

The strongest international route was Rome – Paris

[transtraxman]

“Airline In Focus: ITA Airways”, (Routes Online, 11-11-21)

https://www.routesonline.com/news/29/breaking-news/297116/airline-in-focus-ita-airways/

[LuganoPirate]

I just received an email confirming my status match, but the app does not update, so I have no way of proving to security that I’m entitled to use the fast track at Malpensa, or the other priority services for that matter.

I’ve sent an email asking and I’ll let the Forum know what they say.

4 users thanked author for this post.

thebigseats, cwoodward, sparkyflier, AMcWhirter

[AMcWhirter]

Yesterday’s news published by Handlesblatt was something of a shock.

ITA Airways wants to join Lufthansa Group

[transtraxman]

……..which might explain why
“Air France-KLM secretly meets ITA Airways in Rome – report”, (ch-aviation 17-11-21).

https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/news/109767-air-france-klm-secretly-meets-ita-airways-in-rome-report

So are the Skyteam officials making an attempt to keep ITA within the alliance?

[alainboy56]

Can’t help but laugh at this situation.

Firstly I would be very surprised if LH really want anything to do with AZ, everybody in the aviation world knows how this will play out.

As for the ‘secret meeting’ although if it was secret, how come people knew about it? I imagine that after ‘some people’ rubber stamped in record time accession to the SKYTEAM GROUP that maybe they were coming to collect their dues, perhaps it was payback time ………………..

Most airlines take years to join these partnerships……………..

1 user thanked author for this post.

Poshgirl58

[AMcWhirter]

Indeed. As I noted in the comments after our piece the LH Group accepted Air Dolomiti but ITA Airways is a different kettle of fish.

“Most airlines” is a key word here.

In some cases, normally for strategic/marketing reasons, alliance membership can be expedited.

[alainboy56]

@AMcWhirter

OK, But there is ‘expeditious’ acceptance and there is ‘Supersonic’………………….
Come on Dear Sir, this deal was very obviously ‘cooked’

[Author]

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