Air Italy: with one employee the brand is not defunct

"The Air Italy brand defunct? Not yet". With only one employee at the head of the former airline once controlled by Qatar Airways (49%) and the businessman and Ismailite prince Aga Khan (51%), the liquidators have no intention of easily giving up one of the last remaining assets of what had been first Alisarda and then Meridiana. "It will be discussed when the company is cancelled" from the companies register and it will still take some time, sources close to the liquidators learn. Bringing Air Italy's affairs back to the fore was Aeroitalia's request to use the brand name as five years had passed since the start of voluntary liquidation, a conviction that led the carrier led by Gaetano Intrieri to file for the trademark itself.

But the liquidators do not accept this and in a press release of a few days ago threatened, in the event of "use of the trademark in any form whatsoever, to assess any appropriate initiative to protect their rights and image". Keeping alive what remains of the queen of Olbia and the Costa Smeralda are fifty or so labour disputes of former employees out of the 1,453 that were in the hands of the carrier, as well as tax obligations, enough to say that "the company is still in existence and the trademark belongs to it" and is on display on the letterhead in its burgundy and teal colours. Therefore, according to the liquidators Franco Lagro and Enrico Laghi, the trademark "is still in use", contrary to what Aeroitalia claims.

In liquidation since February 2020 on the eve of the Covid crisis following the decision taken by the shareholders' meeting, since then the company has proceeded to pay all suppliers, return the last 12 aircraft to the lessors, empty the Olbia hangars and the warehouses of AtiTech, the maintenance giant that is now a new hub for private jets. The pandemic slowed the process down, but not the collective redundancies, which were then transformed into Covid redundancies, but in fact since the last flight in July 2020, the company is no longer operational, although it is still active on the administrative front. The company is no longer operational, although it is still active on the administrative front

Founded as Alisarda in the 1960s with funding from the Aga Khan and with the aim of relaunching tourism in Sardinia, the economic difficulties of the 1980s transformed it into Meridiana and then proceeded to first acquire Eurofly and later become Air Italy. Thinking to take advantage of the Alitalia crisis, in 2018 Qatar Airways took over the maximum shareholding allowed by EU regulations, equal to 49 per cent, leaving the Aga Khan 51 per cent, but rising costs and careless management had brought out the company's difficulties, which had come to lose up to 100 million a year.

Today the brand remains an important asset, as the managers of Ita Airways are well aware, who managed to obtain a precautionary measure in court against Aerotalia on the similarity with the Alitalia brand and the immediate renunciation of the registration of the brand in Italy and Europe, a symbol for the Italian carrier now 41% owned by Lufthansa and intent on flying it again.