Aeroitalia relaunches in Romania and opens its first international base (the eighth one  operational) in Bacau with the positioning of a Boeing 737 aircraft.

New Bacau-Italia connections from 12 August

Less than a year and a half after the launch of the direct flights to Rome Fiumicino, the Italian airline reinforces its presence at the Romanian airport with a 40% increase in capacity and by boosting frequencies to Rome, Milan-Bergamo and adding the new Bacau-Turin-Cuneo service.
Starting on 12 August the following weekly connections from Bacau will be operative: ten to Rome Fiumicino, five to Milan Bergamo, two to Turin-Cuneo; to these will be added seven frequencies to Catania via Rome, seven to Palermo, seven to Olbia and seven to Alghero (all via Rome) and four to Comiso, again via Rome Fiumicino.

“Double daily Bacau-Rome Fiumicino flights” 

"The opening of our eighth base in Bacau confirms Aeroitalia's commitment to the customers of the Bacau region and Moldova, with the clear objective of reconnecting Bacau and the region with the most attractive destinations in Italy, – said Krassimir Tanev, CCO Aeroitalia. -Thanks to the strong demand for our connections we are able to expand our Rome-Fiumicino service to double daily, and offer passengers even better connectivity to Italy with three direct routes and five one-stop services to Sicily and Sardinia. And we remain committed to continuing to expand our route portfolio starting with the Winter 2024 flight schedule that will offer even more travel options at industry-leading prices.” 

Aeroitalia is considering the Spanish market 

At the start of Summer 2024 it was Gaetano Intrieri, the airline's managing director, who emphasized the importance of the Romania market and future development plans on the international front: “To date the only international market we serve is Romania, an area that we are taking great care of and which has started well (...) But in the near future we would like to open up some other destinations, for example Spain. It will depend on the codeshare agreements that we sign between now and the Autumn.”

China Eastern Airlines will make its Milan Malpensa and Venice Marco Polo debuts in September. 

Bringing China Eastern to four Italian routes 

With Venice becoming part of the Chinese airline's network for the first time, the carrier is to introduce the route from Shanghai Pudong to Venice Marco Polo and from Xi'an Xianyang to Milan from 26 September 2024. Both routes will be operated three times a week with Airbus A330 aircraft. The launch of the two new connections will bring to four the number of Italian routes operated by the Chinese carrier, which currently serves Rome Fiumicino Airport from Shanghai and twice-weekly flights from Wenzhou, this latter scheduled to stop at the end of the summer.

Issues with overflying Russian airspace

The expansion comes as Chinese carriers continue to strengthen their European networks, while at the same time some European majors are limiting their services to mainland China, due to complications with overflying Russian territories. Excluding routes to Russia, according to data compiled by OAG, Chinese airlines have added or announced 13 new routes to European cities this year. These include China Southern Airlines‘ flights from Guangzhou to the Hungarian capital Budapest and London Gatwick, and Juneyao Airlines’ routes from Shanghai to Athens, Brussels and Manchester; finally, Air China will also introduce a flight between Chengdu and Milan Malpensa from the end of July.

easyJet made its debut a few days ago at the new Salerno-Costa d'Amalfi Airport, and is looking to invest further in Naples.

easyJet’s Milan-Salerno confirmed year-round

The Campania region confirms itself as the market of choice for easyJet in Italy The Salerno airport debut “is a start,- says Lorenzo Lagorio, easyJet's Italy country manager, - this is a test phase, which will allow us to adjust for the winter. We are starting with five routes (from Milan Malpensa, Basel, Geneva, Berlin and London Gatwick) but for now the only confirmed annual flight is the one from Milan, currently operating three times a week, which will drop to two in the winter. But the airport's catchment area is wide and has great potential, so leaving the routes time to mature our aim is to increase frequencies.”

“We have added an 8th aircraft to Naples” 

"Naples is our second base in Italy, and we have added an aircraft - the eighth – with capacity up 14% over 2023, and a seat offer for the year exceeding 3.7 million. But it is also an airport where slots are limited, so the addition of Salerno is an interesting opportunity. Of course there will be complementarity between the two airports, bearing in mind, however, that they are totally different in size. We operate 46 routes on Naples Capodichino in the summer, with a capacity of 2.8 million seats, while at Salerno we have 50,000 seats on sale.” 

easyJet flights to leisure destinations from Salerno

Naples airport is also seen as a connecting hub for passengers from the United States. “Our crews are pointing out that an increasing number of American passengers arriving with flights from US airlines, after spending a few days in Naples and on the Amalfi Coast, continue with an easyJet flight to other leisure destinations in our network, from Sardinia to Greece.”

Italy's 39th airport, the second in the Campania region after Naples Capodichino, the much-announced Salerno-Costa d'Amalfi Airport has opened its doors.

Four airlines: Ryanair, easyJet, Volotea and Universal Air 

Just four airlines are operating on the new airport – Ryanair, easyJet, Volotea and Universal Air - for a total of 20 destinations. Six of these are scheduled domestic flights (Catania, Cagliari, Milan Bergamo, Milan Malpensa, Turin and Verona), seven international (Basel, Berlin, Geneva, Malta, Nantes, London Gatwick, London Stansted) and seven are charters (Corfu, Djerba, Monastir, Podgorica, Rhodes, Sharm el-Sheikh and Zante). 

The winter programme is TBA

By 2043 the investment is expected to amount to a further €245 million, of which €134 million will be financed by public funds (in addition to those already spent on the opening). After the summer, operations will undergo the traditional winter cuts, with a programme yet to be defined that will in any case have to support the infrastructure's operating costs. But so be it: this is a new beginning - and the opening of a new airport does not happen every day. To quote the president of the Campania region, Vincenzo De Luca: “a 20-year-long story comes to an end,” a long cherished desire that however “lacked an industrial plan. And this is just the first step in a project that allows us to imagine intercontinental flights in the not too distant future.”

Raising the bar for the entire Campania region

“The project rests its foundations on the establishment of an airport network capable of giving life to the Campania airport system,- said Carlo Borgomeo, president of Gesac, the company that manages both Naples and Salerno airports.  -I deny the interpretation that Salerno is a spare wheel for Naples. This project is about the development of the region. It is a well thought-out operation, with great opportunities for tourism and cultural exchanges, and it opens up great opportunities for young people. The entire region becomes more attractive.”

Work is ongoing to extend the airport

The runway has been extended (from 1,655 metres to 2,022) as have the aircraft parking aprons, while the passenger terminal and car parks have been reactivated. In 2026 the new passenger terminal will make its debut and will be built while keeping the airport fully operational. “We are already at work on the construction of the new passenger terminal,- said Roberto Barbieri, Gesac's managing director and a strategic advocate of the single management of Campania's two airports. –“This airport connects the region with Berlin, London, Milan and Catania,- said transport minister Matteo Salvini, - Regarding the metro, I count on there being a stop by the beginning of 2027, with fast connections to the city.”

Boosting accessibility for many areas

Despite its name the new Salerno airport also makes areas such as the Cilento’s splendid coastline stretching from the Gulf of Salerno to the Gulf of Policastro, and the Vallo di Diano more easily accessible. And it will help with the problems of overcrowding from Sorrento to Amalfi and from Minori to Positano, especially during the summer peak, as well as being an incentive to a more systematic tourist development for lesser-known destinations.

All Nippon Airways' long-awaited debut at Milan Malpensa with direct Haneda-Malpensa flights  is scheduled for 3 December

Italy is the fourth largest market for Japan

Initially the operations will be for three weekly frequencies on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, with a 215-seat Boeing 787-9 (48 Business, 21 Premium Economy and 146 Economy).  The announcement of the long-awaited direct connection comes at a time when the popularity of Japan is very high. Italy is the fourth largest market in Europe in terms of the number of visitors to Japan, with 152,400 arrivals in 2023. And from January to May 2024, 81,100 Italians have already chosen Japan, an increase of 65.1% over the same period last year, while Japanese travellers have resumed travelling to Italy,  so the direct flight will facilitate inbound flows.

“Milan is an important addition to our expanding European network”

“We are convinced that the new connection will benefit the economy of Lombardy and beyond by facilitating inbound flows from Japan,- said Shinichi Inoue, president and CEO of ANA. - Milan is an important addition to our expanding European network. These flights complement our existing services from London, Frankfurt and Brussels. And we recently resumed daily flights from Paris and Munich to Japan, while a connection from Vienna will follow soon.”

Tokyo Haneda is important for business and leisure travel

“The Tokyo Haneda flight will connect one of the most important markets for business and tourism and thus increase the connectivity offered by our airport system,- said Armando Brunini, managing director of Sea Milan Airports. -The renowned quality of ANA's service and the attention that the carrier has always paid to its passengers are the distinctive features that, I am sure, will guarantee the success of the new flights.  With the new Haneda flights the number of countries directly connected from Milan Malpensa rises to 79, boosting our airport's position for direct connectivity in Europe.”

Once again, for the sixth time in the last seven years, Rome’s Fiumicino airport has excelled in Aci Europe's ranking of Europe's best airports with over 40 million passengers.  It also won the Digital Transformation Award for its commitment to digitization and the promotion of innovation, offering an airport experience of increasing quality to travellers. 

This is just the latest ace up the sleeve of Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Airport as it is poised to become the new hub of the Lufthansa Group, following the green light from the EU to the merger between the German airline and ITA Airways. And what a dowry ITA brings with it! This is a gem of an airport that - like the airline itself - is capable of providing an elite service in Italy and beyond.

Mariella Cattaneo
Journalist

The French railway giant SNCF Voyageurs is due to debut in Italy in 2026, becoming a third high-speed rail player in Italy alongside Trenitalia and Italo.

The French rail company is aiming for a 15% market share by 2030

The French company - already present in nine European countries apart from France and with one third of international passengers - has applied for a 15-year agreement with RFI which is part of the Italian state railways group.  Plans are for the Turin-Naples and Turin-Venice routes, with the new services to be operated by the Italian subsidiary SNCF Voyages Italia with the aim of doubling the number of passengers in Europe over the next ten years, in particular on the Italian market, and achieving a 15% market share by 2030.

Serving 10 Italian cities for now

SNCF Voyageurs will debut with up to 13 daily round trips on two routes: 9 round trips between Turin, Milan, Rome and Naples, and four round trips between Turin and Venice. The following cities will be served: Turin, Milan, Brescia, Verona, Padua, Venice, Bologna, Florence, Rome and Naples. The company confirms that it is open to future extension to other destinations, including Southern Italy, as soon as the infrastructure permits.

Latest-generation double-decker trains 

The 15 TGVM trainsets, which will be technically adapted to the Italian infrastructure, will come from a fleet of trains produced in 2022. In addition, a further 15 latest-generation double-decker trains will run on the Italian network. SNCF has been present in Italy since 1995 with the Artesia service, and since 2011 with the cross-border TGV Inoui service, which operates daily between Milan, Turin and Paris.

“There will be one more competitor, but we are ready”  

“We are already ready,- says Luigi Corradi, CEO and general manager of Trenitalia. -Our service is recognized as excellent. We also have a train that runs between Milan and Paris and the French themselves recognize the real difference in the service we offer on the Frecciarossa. Clearly there will be one more competitor, but we are ready.”  As for possible repercussions on fare levels: “Competition in general helps customers to have different choices. I think our fares are already competitive, especially if we look at value for money.”

“Healthy competition has led to lower prices”

Fabrizio Bona, Italo's commercial director said; “It is still too early to make forecasts. For certain, the high-speed market in Italy today is managed intelligently by the two parties with very high quality and services. Healthy competition has led to lower prices and higher service levels. In the future, we will see.” 

With rooms, a real garden and a cafeteria, Trenitalia's renovated FrecciaLounge inside Milan's Central Station has opened.

“More space for customers”

An investment that the company's CEO and general manager, Luigi Corradi, describes as “relative, in relation to the benefits that passengers can now enjoy. The space has been refurbished, even moving our staff offices to another area of the station, to provide more space for customers.” 

Naples will be the next station to get a new lounge

Located on the station's platform level, the lounge is reserved for CartaFreccia Oro and Platino holders and anyone who purchases single access when travelling on board Frecciarossa trains. "After Rome, which was the first step in this series of renovations, we completed the project in Milan. The objective was not only to make it more beautiful but to offer a high quality and comfortable service, both for passengers who drop in for ten minutes and for those who need to stay longer or have to work.” The renovation process will continue “in Naples towards the end of 2024, and then with the other lounges on the high-speed network.”

Movies, sport, news and a newsstand section 

The FrecciaLounge has a total of 90 seats plus three additional historic benches. The areas have a flexible configuration, offering a variety of solutions that can be modulated on the basis of customer requirements, while respecting the highest standards of privacy. The architecture uses fully sustainable decorative plant elements and monumental forms, and services range from quality catering which differs according to the access times, Wifi and access to digital information on the timetable. In addition, from 1 July it will be possible to surf the new FRECCIAPlay to watch movies, sport, tourist content, news and much more, as well as being able to consult the newsstand section with newspapers, magazines and the digital edition of the La Freccia magazine.

A new Frecciapoint information counter

A further innovation for Milano Centrale is the debut of the new FrecciaPoint - on the platform level, outside the FrecciaLounge – a counter where travellers can make ticket changes, receive information and make service requests.