Alitalia Closes Belgrade Office

Belgrade is left without the office of another airline carrier now that Alitalia has closed its office after 25 years. As the Aviatica portal learns unofficially, the company’s office in Belgrade closed last week after more than 25 years.

The company has not made any official statement, but the agency network in Serbia was suddenly informed of the closing down of this office, after which they started getting notifications from Alitalia’s office in Sofia, which is now apparently in charge of the Serbian market as well.

Alitalia is a step away from shutting down, after the European Commission authorized the Government of Italy to carry out the transition of the core air transport activity to a new company, to be called ITA (Italia Transporto Aereo) without a public tender. Other, additional and side activities, will be extracted from the parent company and offered to investors through a tender.

The new company should start carrying out flights as soon as April, though June or July are being mentioned as most realistic dates since recently. All the details about the company’s future operations are not yet known. Recently, the public learned about a plan for the new company, which envisages a reduction of the fleet to 45 aircraft and a discontinuation of a large number of lines, including those to Belgrade and other cities in the region.

The negotiations with the European Commission are ongoing and it is not yet known whether the new company will be able to continue operating under the same name. The EC is decidedly against it and requires full discontinuity between the old and the new companies

The latest report on the progress of these negotiations, which was mentioned at the Italian parliament last week, shows that it seems that the Italian side has conceded to abandon the Alitalia name.

A five-year plan of the new reincarnation of Alitalia is to gradually return to the markets with a focus on regional and European traffic. Belgrade would thereby be re-included into the line network from next year.

Podgorica recently appeared on the flight schedule of the still existing Alitalia, but its definite return will depend on the transition plans. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Alitalia has not been flying to Belgrade.

Predstavništvo Alitalia Beograd

Alitalia

Alitalia Belgrade office

Italia Transporto Aereo

European Commission

Alitalia closing