Alitalia is ending ticket sales and flight operations from 15 October 15.
It comes as new business ITA (Italia Trasporto Aereo) agreed to buy some of Alitalia’s aircraft, the workforce, slots and other assets to start as a new state-backed airline.
ITA is owned by the Italian Finance Ministry, which has written off Alitalia’s remaining debts and pumped in about €700m in startup funding.
The new airline will emerge as much smaller than Alitalia – with just 52 planes but plans to gradually grow the fleet again in the coming years.
ITA will also ditch Alitalia’s frequent flyer program and contract out for a new one.
It will also outsource other functions such as ground handling and maintenance and will begin with a much smaller workforce.
ITA will concentrate on domestic and European routes and ill keep flying a few profitable long haul routes to the US and Tokyo, Japan.
"The long-haul market means privileging the North American market which is under-served and extremely profitable, but further expansion is needed," said ITA CEO Fabio Lazzerini.
"South America is to be kept on standby; we have to think about Asia and China, while Japan is doing very well."
Lazzerini says airline alliances will be key to its success.
