Italy’s new flag carrier, ITA Airways, says it will resurrect the failed Alitalia brand as a nod to the country’s aviation past and to mark its “role as an extraordinary ambassador of Made in Italy around the world.”
The Alitalia brand was retired in October 2021 when Italian lawmakers struck a deal with the European Union to eradicate its mounting losses by creating a new state-owned airline known as Italia Trasporto Aereo or ITA Airways.
The deal was largely a paper exercise, with ITA Airways simply taking over Alitalia’s planes and hiring many of its employees, but it was the only way to circumvent the EU’s rules that prohibited the Italian government from pumping even more taxpayer money into the airline.
Since 2021, ITA Airways has been building its own brand image with a bold blue livery, sleek aircraft interiors and stylish cabin crew uniforms, although the administrators were careful not to relinquish control of the Alitalia brand just in case it would come in useful in the future.
For the time being at least, ITA Airways doesn’t intend to fully rebrand as Alitalia, but on Friday, the Miland-based carrier said it would start using elements of the defunct brand, perhaps as a way to resonate with passengers.
From the end of the year, the ITA logo will be presented alongside the Alitalia logo, while the airline’s official tagline will become: ‘ITA Airways – Inspired by Alitalia.’
“The Alitalia brand, an important asset owned by ITA Airways, is being enhanced through a concrete and ambitious project,” the airline announced in a statement on Friday. “ITA Airways will continue to uphold its distinct identity, established since October 15, 2021, while advancing its development process in key markets.”
Last year, ITA Airways took issue with a privately owned rival airline called Aeroitalia because it alleged that the carrier’s name and logo were far too similar to Alitalia.
Having bought the brand rights to Alitalia for a reported €90 million, ITA Airways demanded that Aeroitalia do a complete rebrand over what it sees as a “clear violation of ITA’s exclusive rights.”
Aeroitalia has, however, refused to comply with ITA’s demands, and the airline’s owner says he employed a “highly qualified trademark management company” when they designed the logo in order to avoid a trademark clash.
