Well, it's October 15, 2021, and it's the start of a new era for Italian aviation. Alitalia ceased operations at the end of the day on October 14, 2021; the next day, Italia Trasporto Aereo (ITA) started operations taking over what Alitalia left for the Italian operations. But it did not go any smoothly as everyone expected. The day started as a Brand Identity crisis. ITA changed its name and brand to ITA Airways with a resemblance to the Alitalia Brand it acquired at the same time when Alitalia ceased operation. According to a Twitter user, it's been a bumpy ride (no pun intended) for the airline. At the airport, neither logo is used on the airport flight information display (FID) screens. The airport Public Address System is saying the name Alitalia even though the Gate Monitors say ITA. But it doesn't end there. ITA's website is all over the place. Right now, the website is so glitchy it's even hard to find stuff on its website. Right now, any translated version of this website just brings you to a blank screen, and only the Italian (default) version of the site is partially working. In most cases, you can see either the old ITA and the new ITA logo every time you refresh the browser.

And the airline still has no social media pages. So right now, everyone is talking about the transition via #ITAAirways on Twitter. But what is just great is the most significant confusion of all the Alitalia Brand. As mentioned early ITA bought the Alitalia brand, people thaught if ITA bought the Alitalia brand it would be a new Alitalia with a new legal company, WRONG. As the airline rebranded today as ITA Airways, the airline purchased the Alitalia brand to prevent competitors from buying the brand and used it to compete with ITA. But it also looked like it allowed them to resemble the old Alitalia Logo with the same color and a little touch of the Italian flag in the A of ITA to remember Alitalia. ITA announced the official livery (Picture top of the Blog Post) of its aircraft coming to the new planes they ordered earlier last month. The plane will include the color blue, connected with the Italian sports team, and a mix of patterns with the Italian flag on the tail to represent the Italian fashion industry and the Italian Republic.

On the brighter side, the airline also launched its new Frequent Flyer program called Volare. Thanks to the European Commission (EC), ITA was blocked from purchasing MilleMiglia (Alitalia’s Frequent Flyer Program), thus creating a new program that has problems too at this moment, but the funny part ITA is using Salesforce to power the operations of the loyalty program.

To be honest, remember when Meridiana rebranded as Air Italy, this is in thanks to Qatar Airways ownership in 49% stake in the airline. With Air Italy's goal of being the next flag carrier of Italy but ceased operations back in February 2020. Well, the Air Italy transition was much smoother than the Alitalia - ITA transition. But even though it's the first day, the new team is still getting the kinks in the new airline running. We now have to wait and see what this airline will bring to the Italian Economy, even as the country is still trying to recover from the devastating impact of the COVID19 pandemic.

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So bye Alitalia, Welcome ITA!