Rome, Aug 24 (AFP/APP):The board of directors of ITA, Italy’s new flag carrier born out of the ashes of long-struggling Alitalia, approved Tuesday a binding offer for 52 of the latter’s aircraft, related airport slots and other assets.
The new airline will start flying on October 15, after receiving the green light from Italy’s civil authorities last week, with tickets going on sale on August 26, ITA announced in a statement.
Alitalia meanwhile said that from midnight Tuesday it will stop selling tickets for flights from October 15, with customers who have already booked after that point able to change to an earlier flight or receive a refund.
Loss-making Alitalia was placed under state administration in 2017 but Italy has struggled to find an investor to take it over. The situation was only exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic that grounded airlines worldwide.
Earlier this year Italy said it had reached an agreement with the European Union for a bailout that creates a new debt-free company to take over some of Alitalia’s assets — ITA.
Under the deal, Alitalia’s ground and maintenance assets will be sold separately, although ITA can bid alongside other investors.
The Italian government has created a 100-million-euro ($117-million) fund to reimburse Alitalia customers.
Italy provided state loans totalling 1.3 billion euros between 2017 and 2019.
In July, it approved another 700 million euros for ITA.
Further sums are expected in 2022 and 2023, bringing the total to 1.35 billion euros.
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