MILAN (ITALPRESS) – The Board of Directors of Ita Airways has approved the consolidated half-yearly financial statements as of June 30, 2024, which recorded, among the main indicators, revenues of 1.4 billion euros (+300 million compared to the first half of 2023), EBITDA +62 million euros (better by 130 million compared to the same period last year) and cash of 393 million euros (+31 million compared to the result as of June 30, 2023). The presentation of the half-yearly report was held at the new Milan offices for Volare staff and the Ita Airways sales force – 540 square meters and 58 workstations – in the presence of President Antonino Turicchi, General Manager Andrea Benassi, Chief Financial Officer Claudio Faggiani and Chief Commercial Officer and Volare CEO Emiliana Limosani. The first six months of 2024 confirmed the company’s positive trend that began in 2023, with an average load factor that stood at 79 percent, 2 percentage points higher than the same period in 2023. Ita Airways carried more than 8.3 million passengers, improving by 26 percent over the figures recorded in the first six months of last year and thus managing to generate 33 percent more revenue than in 2023. The first six months of the year also recorded 99.84 percent regularity and 78.1 percent punctuality. “Based on the plan agreed between Mef and Lufthansa, we confirm that the return to profit is expected in 2025,” Turicchi explained. “In fact, 2025 will be a somewhat special year because there is the Jubilee, an important element. We are experiencing extremely important traffic at Fiumicino and we believe the trend will continue. 2025 will be the year when the expected results will be confirmed. “The company’s top management then announced that by the end of 2024, on some strategic touchpoints, the Ita Airways logo will be flanked by the Alitalia logo with the words: ITA Airways, “inspired by Alitalia.” The Alitalia brand, an important asset owned by the company, “is thus enhanced.” This is because “it has inspired, with its pioneering excellence in air transport and its role as an extraordinary ambassador of Made in Italy in the world, the values of Ita Airways.” During the presentation, the importance of Milan and Linate Airport in the company’s strategy was also reiterated. “For us, Milan is a fundamental and strategic market and Linate is the second reference airport in the company’s business plan. We continue to invest and we will continue to do so, not only with this new Milan office,” Benassi explained.Therefore, the intention is to renovate the lounge at Linate to “make it more beautiful, larger and more elegant. It will be 480 square meters, with the capacity to accommodate 400 daily accesses and will be open from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m.”.In the first eight months of 2024, on Linate “we guaranteed 150 daily flights and covered 28 destinations, 12 domestic and 17 international. All routes in the July-August period had an outstanding result. Linate’s turnover was about 370 million, +20 percent. “According to Benassi, Linate “is gaining a prestigious place in Europe, thanks also to the effort the city administration has made with the M4 metro. I believe that in Europe there is no such quick and convenient connection with the city center. “As for, however, the closing of the transaction with Lufthansa, Turicchi pointed out that “the European Commission has given conditions and we are working to make sure that these conditions are all met by the deadline. We are talking about November 4 and we are confident that we can complete all the work before the new Commission takes office. With the current commissioner Vestager we continue to work with the whole team and we believe that we are perfectly in line and doing our ‘homework’ in order and on time with the deadline that has been given. “The number of slots required by the European Commission that we would have to leave at Linate” to close the deal with Lufthansa, “are 30, we made a quick assessment and they weigh for 1 percent of the company’s turnover,” Benassi then clarified. “So they will not have a significant impact on our performance and joining the Lufthansa group will compensate for that. The lengthening of the Commission’s negotiations was a penalizing element, we expected to close in the second half of the year. “According to the CEO, the results the company brings “occur in a completely penalizing scenario. We are operating in the U.S. without a U.S. partner carrier, and this for a young company like ours in a competitive market is an additional source of pride. We are achieving results at a time of penalization. “Among other factors of difficulty, Benassi pointed out, “the current crisis in the Middle East has a significant impact. When for security reasons we cancel flights to Tel Aviv we suffer because Tel Aviv feeds all three network sectors, domestic, intercontinental and international. This crisis had to disrupt our plan because we had planned two new routes, Beirut and Amman. Unfortunately, the situation has forced us to rethink the plans and this is impacting”.However, “the opening of other markets that we have done is more than compensating for this situation.”
– ITA Airways press office photo –
(ITALPRESS).
