It probably shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, but the debut of the “new” Alitalia, which was scheduled for December 1, has been delayed indefinitely. The recent elimination of most Alitalia service into and out of Brindisi was a wake-up call for the tourism industry in Puglia, where other carriers are working to fill gaps in service and take advantage of opportunities.

Here’s the complete article from the Italian news service ANSA:

Launch of “new” Alitalia delayed

CAI not ready for December 1 kick-off date

(ANSA) – Rome, November 27 – The launch of a new, private Italian airline to replace bankrupted national carrier Alitalia will not take place on December 1 as planned, Italy’s civil aviation authority ENAC said on Thursday. ENAC added that a new starting date had not yet been decided.

The reason for the delay, ENAC explained, was that Compagnia Aerea Italiana (CAI), a group of Italian investors put together to buy Alitalia’s flight division, needed more time “to complete several administrative and technical aspects” of creating a new national carrier. Last Friday ENAC said it was ready to issue an operating license to the new airline as soon as CAI supplied it with the necessary guarantees. These were said to be both financial and bureaucratic, including the presentation of official ownership papers and green lights from Italy’s antitrust authority and the European Union-approved monitoring trustee.

ENAC Chairman Vito Riggio said at the time that, in order to have authorization to fly, CAI had to guarantee it had sufficient funds for the new carrier to operate for at least three months. He added that ENAC was ready, if necessary, to keep its offices open during the weekend of November 29-30 to insure the new airline could take off December 1. Riggio stressed that the transition from the old to new national carrier “is the most important maneuver of its kind ever carried out in the sector and involves orchestrating a failure and a rebirth without any hitch in operations.”

On Thursday, ENAC said the “old” Alitalia would continue to fly until CAI is ready to launch the new airline. ENAC explained that the decision to delay the departure of the new airline was made Wednesday by a permanent committee overseeing the transition from the old to new carrier and made up of representatives from ENAC, CAI and the “old” Alitalia, currently being run by government-appointed administrator Augusto Fantozzi.

Copyright ANSA