Alitalia has been fined by the Italian antitrust authorities for bullying tactics against domestic competitors, and as it succeeds in removing one through a codeshare deal with startup Alpi Eagles, another potential threat appears in the form of Azzurra Air.
The authorities found that Alitalia had 'impeded, blocked and restricted' the arrival of domestic competitors after an investigation launched last February following complaints from two private airlines, Air One and Meridiana.
Alitalia faced three main charges: pressurising travel agents not to sell other airlines' tickets; colluding with airport slot coordinators comprising Alitalia staff; and changing its own schedules to match those of competitors. 'These schedules ceased as soon as the competitor was driven off that route,' claims an Air One executive. 'Lack' of slots at Milan/Linate forced the airline to abandon plans to Naples services last October.
Alitalia was found guilty on all three counts but escaped with the minimum fine of 415 million lire (US$278,000). This represents just 1 per cent of annual revenues on the two routes concerned, from Milan/Linate to La Metia and Brindisi. The lenient fine was said to relate to Alitalia's 'voluntary' abandonment of its slot allocation role 10 days before the antitrust ruling and recognition of the airline's precarious financial situation.
But despite the ruling, Air One predicts that Alitalia will hold sway at the new independent slot allocation agency, which will be set up by the Ministry of Transport.
Alitalia's deal with Alpi Eagles removes one potential competitive threat. Alitalia will lease its five Fokker 70s to the start-up and buy seats back on the aircraft, which will be operated with Alpi's livery and crews. The carrier will operate the aircraft out of its Venice hub to Madrid and Barcelona and on domestic services to Catania, Palermo and Verona. Other international routes under review include London, Düsseldorf and Paris.
As Alitalia removes one competitor, however, another one appears. Azzurra Air planned to start operations on 10 December 1996, operating from Turin to Munich, Zürich, Paris/Orly, London/City and Rome, using two Avro RJ85s and an RJ70. The carrier is 49 per cent owned by Air Malta and was set up on the assumption that Malta would soon join the European Union.
The carrier is majority owned by EU interest - the remaining 51 per cent stake is shared mainly by Italian institutions, including banks Banco Medio and Credito Centrale.
Meanwhile, Meridiana, Italy's largest private carrier, is responding to Alitalia's restructuring and its own high operating costs with a strategy to save up to 29.5 billion lire in 1997 through productivity gains and work rule changes. Employees, who were due to vote on the plan on 10 January, would receive a 20 per cent stake in return.
Source: Airline Business
