Aeroitalia lands in Genoa, new flights to Rome and Sardinia

Aeroitalia inaugurated its new operational base at Genoa's Cristoforo Colombo Airport, where, since the beginning of February, two 68-seat Atr 72-600 aircraft have been operating and around 20 crew members are employed.

The vehicles are used on the Genoa-Rome Fiumicino connection. A route on which, until now, there was only Ita Airways' service, with flights, considered extremely expensive by customers. So much so that the Ligurian business world, in recent months, before the arrival of the new company, had, on several occasions, stressed the fact that fares for the route were almost equal to those paid for international flights.

'We have never implemented high fares,' reassured users Gaetano Intrieri, Aeroitalia's CEO, 'not even in Sicily or Sardinia, when we could have done so and even reached 4-500 euros one way. Here in Genoa, we started out with precise objectives: we are selling a flight to Rome at an average of around 70-80 euros. We may have peaks, at particular times, but we will never exceed 150-160 euro, which in my opinion is the maximum price, ethically fair, that you can put on a route that, in the end, lasts 40 minutes of flight time. This is our idea'.

To give a measure 'of how much a solution to the Rome connection issue was awaited,' commented Fabrizio Ferrari, president of Confindustria Genova, 'I can only say that when I announced the new flights at the general council of Confindustria, there was open applause. And I had not even disclosed the costs. This shows how much the need for this new connection was felt. And let's hope it's only the beginning, as we still have years of suffering ahead of us for the other infrastructures, which need major maintenance. Today, to get around, we need the airport'.

Flights to the capital will be from Monday to Friday: the first Genoa-Rome is at 8 a.m.; and the Rome-Genoa at 10.20 a.m.; then there are the Genoa-Rome at 6.05 p.m. and the Rome-Genoa at 9.05 p.m. For the weekend, one flight is scheduled on Saturday (Genoa-Rome at 8am; Rome-Genoa at 10.20am) and one on Sunday (Genoa-Rome at 6.05pm; Rome-Genoa at 9.05pm). But Aeroitalia is also focusing on Sardinia: for the summer season, it will strengthen the connections between Liguria and Sardinia, introducing, from June, the two routes Genoa-Alghero and Genoa-Olbia.