Wizz Air launches new Pristina service

GLOBAL AVIATION NEWS

Italy to sell ITA in June

Italy's government aims to sell state-owned ITA Airways, the successor to Alitalia, by the end of June after setting a deadline for binding offers of May 23, Economy Minister Daniele Franco said. Three prospective bidders for ITA Airways have had access to its finance data room, Franco said addressing parliament over the issue. They are shipping group MSC alongside Germany's Lufthansa, the U.S. Certares fund in cooperation with Delta and Air France, and investor Indigo Partners, Franco added. Under a government decree, Rome plans to privatise ITA through a direct sale while retaining a minority, non-controlling stake in a first stage. MSC in January requested an exclusivity period of 90 days to iron out details of an acquisition, but Rome opted for a market-based procedure aimed at keeping the door open to other potential suitors. "The outcome of the negotiations is not a foregone conclusion. We will examine the three offers in a transparent way, there is no decision on our part at present", Franco said adding a key factor is that the buyer is at least 51% owned by a European player. Lufthansa is interested in taking a minority stake in ITA, leaving the majority to MSC, the airline said in remarks during its shareholders meeting. It added, however, that the review of ITA's financial data would be important to confirm this preliminary intention. If the deal does go through, Lufthansa aims to build a close commercial cooperation with ITA and expects synergies to make the investment profitable in the long term, the carrier said. Under an agreement with the European Union, Rome can inject up to 1.35 billion euros into the ITA by 2023. A privatisation deal would potentially reduce the financial support granted by the state, limiting the costs for Italian taxpayers.

Wizz Air launches new Pristina service

NEWS FLASH

Wizz Air will inaugurate flights between Milan Malpensa and Pristina this afternoon, linking Kosovo with Italy for the first time in nine months. The carrier will follow up the new service this Sunday by commencing operations from Baden Baden. However, only a handful of flights will be operated before the new routes are temporarily suspended. In addition to today, services from Milan will run on December 21, January 4 and January 8, before being restored on March 1. Flights from Baden Baden will be operated on December 20, 23, 27, January 3, 6 and 10. Services will then be suspended until March 3.

Today’s inaugural flight from Milan to Pristina is sold out on the 186-seat Airbus A320 aircraft, however, at this point, only thirty passengers are booked on the return service, with Italy enforcing some of the strictest travel restriction in Europe for travellers arriving from outside of the European Union.

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Wizz Air launches new Pristina service

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