Here's the new Aeroitalia: a low cask and not a low cost company: speaks CEO Gaetano Intrieri

There is a new Italian-flagged airline: it is Aeroitalia, which took off in May and is making its first report at the end of the summer season. Founded by German Efromovich, a South American entrepreneur and owner of the Avionica company, it has Marc Bourgade, a French banker with expertise in airline financing, as chairman and Gaetano Intrieri as CEO. Based in Rome and its initial hub Forlì, Aeroitalia operates charter and regional scheduled routes over Europe. Finestre sull’Arte contacted Gaetano Intrieri, a university lecturer and industry expert, who explained how the idea came to “German Efromovich because he wanted to enter the European market and had already made a bid for Alitalia in his time, but the government preferred the Ferrovie dello Stato stringer. I, after many years dealing with leasing, decided to get back into the business of a company.”

AL. Not a trivial choice given the market dominated by international players, don’t you think?

GI. Let me say that we are not starting from scratch because it is a Company that has focused everything on human skills. If we add up the years in the industry of the members of our Board of Directors, which consists of 5 members, we put together over 150 of career aviation.

In which market segment do you want to place yourself?

We do not place ourselves in the low cost, but rather in the low “cask,” an acronym that stands for “cost per seat per kilometer,” which is one of the main measures of an aircraft. We have made prudent cost management our mantra. We want to be low cost operationally but we aim to offer the customer a service that is not low cost.

Will costs increase for everyone?

Yes, other companies will also have to raise their prices, those kinds of fares are no longer sustainable. There will be a leveling off of fares, which for me in Italy will be around 35 euros per flight hour on flights in Italy. Also considering the current cost of fuel, it is unthinkable to go back to those fares....

What routes do you operate on?

We did a lot of charters this summer and with scheduled flights we started from Forli and now we are also starting on Bergamo, Rome, Catania, Egypt and Africa. We will soon extend to Sicily, to Trapani, and we will target Florence, Bari, Zante, Lampedusa, Malta, Tirana, and Prague.

How much does the airlines’ choice to base on smaller stopovers affect the increase of tourism in those areas?

It is crucial. We bring passengers and therefore GDP, and this must be recognized [nda: Intrieri’s reference is to the public contributions that local authorities turn over to carriers to land on their territory]. We have focused on this on territorial marketing with airports and entities. The sustainability of a fight cannot do without it. Because I don’t understand why if a company brings thousands of people to an area it should not be recognized.

How do you see tourism?

It is recovering great, in Europe better than in Italy, you can see it from the people in the airports. We had demand this summer for a lot of charters: it is very profitable, this year they touched prices never seen before, they are very profitable flights.

Have the traveler’s habits changed? Has vacation and travel planning changed since Covid?

Covid has shortened the “time to buy”: passengers who book 2 -3 months in advance are few, now they do it 10-15 days earlier.

What would you ask of the new government?

More needs to be done in Italy. There are too many taxes on airports that make them impractical. If we want to do incoming tourism we need to do two things: push in Europe to revise Regulation 261 for passenger reimbursement that results in misleading readings that only serves to increase the billing of law firms to seek refunds that are often not due. We also need to review the city tax that is charged today: 6.5 euros per passenger does not exist anywhere in Europe.

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