Rome — A chapter in Italian aviation history will close on Thursday night when the final flight of long-struggling airline Alitalia lands in Rome.
The flight from Sardinia is scheduled to touch down at the capital's Rome-Fiumicino airport at 11:10 pm ( 2110 GMT), an airline spokesperson told dpa.
The airline will then cease to exist after 74 years. Alitalia was founded in 1947 and for decades the brand was associated with Italy's post-War economic boom.
New state airline Italia Trasporto Aereo (ITA) takes off on Friday.
The new airline is considered to be Alitalia's successor, but both the Italian government and the European Union's executive hope it makes a clean break with Alitalia's troubled financial past.
Alitalia has not made an annual profit since 2002 and multiple turnaround attempts failed, including efforts to find private buyers that involved talks with Delta and Lufthansa.
The airline was privatized in 2008, but still required massive state help after that. In 2017 it went bankrupt and was put in the hands of special administrators.
Two subsequent state loans ran afoul of EU state aid rules that aim to ensure a level playing field in the continent's aviation sector.
In 2020, coronavirus-related air travel restrictions brought the airline to its knees again. A bailout kept Alitalia flying but also paved the way for the re-nationalization of Italy's flag carrier under the new company ITA.
The European Commission gave its OK to ITA in September and, in another boost, ruled that ITA would not be held liable for 900 million euros (1 billion dollars) in illegal state aid received by its predecessor in 2017.
The commission also confirmed that the 1.35 billion euros the government was injecting into the new company to get it off the ground was in line with EU rules.
ITA will start operations with 52 aircraft. This year, up to 2,950 people will be employed there - down from Alitalia's 10,000.
It will initially offer 45 destinations and 61 routes, including Frankfurt, Paris, London, New York and Buenos Aires.
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