Alitalia - government ends deadlock
While aircraft are staying on the ground in many places, there has been some unexpected movement with regard to Alitalia. After the flag carrier from Italy, which is currently especially affected by the health crisis, faced definite bankruptcy, the state decided to nationalise the airline.
To this end, it is planned to set up a "New Company", which will have at most 30 aircraft and thus be much smaller than the previous Alitalia with more than 110. The biggest of them have, in coordination with the Italian department of civil protection, which also relies on the Italian air force, performed the first of a series of humanitarian cargo flights from China.
For this first flight, a B777-300ER is returning from Shanghai to Rome today, 26 March 2020, carrying 160 cbm of medical supplies that include 3 million protective face masks. (ah)