Made in Italy: Aeroitalia CCO on the startup carrier’s plans for future growth  

The fact that over the last few decades Italy has struggled to consolidate a home-grown airline sector has not deterred investors from eyeing the opportunities offered by one of Europe’s largest air travel markets. 

The emergence of ITA Airways, Italy’s new flag carrier born from the ashes of Alitalia, and its subsequent acquisition by Lufthansa has dominated public attention. Yet, another Italian startup airline has been proudly displaying the tricolor on its aircraft as it quietly but steadily builds its presence across the country.  

Aeroitalia was established in 2022 by aviation professional Francesco Gaetano Intrieri and aviation financier Marc Bourgade with the objective of enhancing air connectivity throughout Italy. Avianca’s former chairman, German Efromovich, was also initially involved in the project and briefly held the position of chairman during the airline’s early stages. His involvement has subsequently become the subject of an ongoing legal dispute regarding the company’s ownership structure. 

The initial plan even envisaged a later expansion into the long-haul segment of the market. However, those rather ambitious plans appear to have already been shelved.  

However, Aeroitalia has been busy expanding in carefully selected international niche markets, as well as building up its core business of connecting Italian islands to the mainland. Gaetano Intrieri has even expressed the intention, law cases permitting, to hold an IPO before the end of 2025. 

AeroTime met with Aeroitalia Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), Massimo di Perna, during the 81st Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which took place in Delhi in June 2025, to discuss the new Italian airline’s current projects and future plans.  

“We started with charter flights and within less than a year we launched our scheduled flight program, consolidating strategic role in the Italian landscape,”  explained Di Perna, who added that, while new to the market, most of the staff comes from other Italian airlines, bringing a significant amount of accumulated industry experience. 

Aeroitalia’s bread and butter is connecting the country’s major islands, namely Sicily and Sardinia, to the mainland, including some of those routes operated under a PSO (Public Service Obligation) regime.  

AeroitaliaAeroitalia’s international expansion

As of July 2025, 96% of Aeroitalia’s routes are domestic, although the carrier is also dipping its toes into some carefully selected niche international routes. Aeroitalia, for example, flies from its main base at Rome Fiumicino International Airport (FCO) to Bacau (BCO), in Romania, Brno (BCQ), which is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, and Lublin (LUZ), in eastern Poland. 

Di Perna also said that further international expansion was on the cards [shortly after this interview took place Aeroitalia announced a seasonal route between Fiumicino and Ibiza (IBZ) – ed. note], although Aeroitalia faces a major challenge in the form of a lack of public brand-awareness outside of its home market.  

The executive explained that Aeroitalia’s expansion will be organic, clearly underlining the difference with the new airline’s other major international project to date, the purchase of Romanian regional carrier AirConnect, later rebranded as Aeroitalia Regional. 

That project appears to have been short-lived, as Aeroitalia soon lost interest in the Romanian carrier. AirConnect’s only two ATR-72 turboprops were transferred to Aeroitalia, while the remaining assets, including its AOC, which has been suspended since November 2024, are reportedly in the process of being sold. 

“Our target for 2025 is 3.5 million passengers. We are still a small airline, but growing fast,” Di Perna told AeroTime. 

Aeroitalia is, of course, not alone in the Italian domestic market. In addition to ITA Airways, with its hub-and-spoke operation out of Rome Fiumicino (FCO), low-cost carriers like Ryanair, easyJet, Wizz Air and Volotea, have all built a significant presence in the Italian market. 

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Di Perna, however, highlighted Aeroitalia’s competitive strengths.  

“Perhaps our cost level is not as low as the ultra-low-cost airlines, but compared to ITA Airways or even to Volotea, we have a very good cost base,” he said. “Aeroitalia is profitable from day one” 

Defining Aeroitalia’s strategy 

Di Perna explained that the priority for Aeroitalia in 2025 is to stabilize and consolidate the existing network while working on the future network strategy. 

Aeroitalia is also launching a new digital and commercial strategy that aims to diversify its distribution channels. 

“We are moving into a more multi-channel approach. At the moment we sell mostly B2C [business to consumer] but I think there is room to grow in B2B [business to business],” added Di Perna, explaining that, in addition to Amadeus, Aeroitalia will soon integrate with other global distribution systems (GDS) such as Sabre and Travelport.  

The executive also disclosed that the carrier is working on several interline agreements with global airlines which will enable further connectivity between Aeroitalia’s domestic network and many more international, and even intercontinental, destinations. The first of these with Air France, KLM and Delta Air Lines was announced on July 1, 2025, and, just a few days later, on July 22, 2025, a similar agreement with Qatar Airways was also announced. 

This will also help reduce the marked seasonality of Aeroitalia’s current traffic, which is a very diverse mix of VFR (visiting friends and relatives), passengers traveling to Rome for business and, not surprisingly considering the strong Mediterranean island component of the network, leisure traffic. 

Aeroitalia operates single cabin aircraft, with passengers customizing their desired level of services through the acquisition of ancillaries. However, Di Perna rejected the “low-cost” label, noting this is often associated, even if mistakenly, with low quality by both the media and the public.  

“There are now basically two business models: point-to-point, which can be low-cost or not, and the so-called network carriers. We offer connectivity via Rome, so we consider ourselves a network carrier,” he explained, adding that inflight ancillaries are working well for Aeroitalia and the next challenge is to develop the ground ancillaries offered via external partners. 

On Aeroitalia’s fleet 

AeroitaliaWhen it comes to the fleet, as of July 2025, Aeroitalia operates nine Boeing 737-800 aircraft and a single B737-700 , in addition to the two ATR72-600 turboprops it received from its AirConnect venture and two Embraers (an E175 and an E190) which it wet-leases from Greek ACMI operator Marathon Airlines. 

Commenting on this rather eclectic fleet, Di Perna pointed out the difficulty in getting aircraft in the current market conditions. 

“We have to work with the lessors to see what is coming to the market day by day,” he said.  

According to Di Perna, the fact that the airline’s chairman has a professional background in the aircraft leasing industry, something that is extremely helpful when it comes to securing the right aircraft at the right time. 

When asked about plans to add more aircraft to its fleet, Di Perna replied: “It’s clear that we have to grow. We are too small in this global market.” 

“I can’t give you an exact number now,” he added. “But we’ll go past 20 aircraft, for sure.” The post Made in Italy: Aeroitalia CCO on the startup carrier’s plans for future growth   appeared first on AeroTime.

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