Southern European Flag carriers re-nationalised
On 29 June 2020, Alitalia was officially relaunched with new management (Francesco Caio, an executive with a background in telecoms and banking and who led the postal service Poste Italiane to an IPO in 2015, as president, and Fabio Lazzerini, a former general manager of Emirates in Italy, as CEO) and the new company name "Alitalia - Trasporto Aereo Italiano S.p.A.".
The Italian government hopes it has ended years of financial turmoil at the newly nationalised flag carrier, which will receive a budget of EUR 3 billion (USD 3.4 billion) and a fleet of 100 aircraft.
Only a few days later, the Portuguese government announced that it will invest EUR 55 million into TAP Air Portugal, thus increasing its stake in the carrier, which was partially privatised no longer than five years ago, from 50 to 72.5%. (ah)