The new Alitalia, the result of the agreement with the Abu Dhabi company Etihad, presents itself and takes off illustrating the 2015-18 business plan. “To be competitive, a company must create value, wealth and no longer be dependent on banks and external support. Bringing the company into profit in 2017 is therefore the most important goal. It is a significant and difficult commitment, but the conditions are there for looking at success with confidence and optimism”. To illustrate the business plans for the company which officially kicked off on 1 January, after the agreement reached with Etihad which entered the capital with a 49% stake, the president Luca Cordero di Montezemolo and the managing director Silvano Cassano flanked by James Hogan, president and CEO of Etihad as well as vice president of the national airline. Yesterday the company board of directors met and examined the business plan and approved the 2015 budget.
THE FOUR OPPORTUNITIES
“The first is human resources, the people who have worked in Alitalia and have gone through difficult years, with sometimes excessive and oppressive attention from the political world. We must create esprit de corps, pride and belonging” began Luca di Montezemolo. The second priority is the strength of the brand: “Alitalia must become sexy – he added with a joke – and will increasingly be Italy's ambassador in the world”. The third priority is the quality of the service so that "customers are considered as guests to be welcomed and put at ease with innovative services on board and on the ground, of the highest quality". And of course the routes: "Strong increase in long-haul routes and strengthening of existing ones".
THE HOURGLASS
The air transport sector should be imagined as an hourglass, explained CEO Cassano. In the lower part are the low cost companies and the competition takes place on cost reduction, at the top there are the premium companies and the competition takes place on quality and routes. "Being at the center is unpleasant – she concluded – and for this reason we want to reposition Alitalia towards the top, we will be a great premium company". How to achieve the goal? “America and Asia – clarified Cassano – are the focal axes of development. New routes will depart from Rome to Berlin and Dusseldorf, to San Francisco in 2018, to Mexico City and Santiago. Beijing has already left, this year Seoul and Korea will join”. More flights are planned to New York, Chicago, Rio de Janeiro. But the routes to Abu Dhabi from Venice, Milan, Bologna, Rome and Catania will be strengthened with new daily flights; only flights from Venice, Rome and Milan Malpensa will be long-haul. “Abu Dhabi is an important crossroads towards the East: China, India, Japan, Australia, the Middle East”. she continued. A flow in two directions also seen in the commitment to Expo 2015. The potential customers to 'intercept' in Asia is estimated at over 2 billion people.
Rome and Malpensa will be used for long-haul and cargo flights, while Milan Linate will be redesigned to "take back the business market of Northern Italy directed towards Europe" with an optimization of slots for European flights. "The customer - is the synthesis - will have to choose according to the quality of the service and the network". A final mention of the employment issue, after a question addressed to him by a journalist about the possibility of reabsorbing the workers in Cig. “We have a clear project and it takes us to 2017. We will do everything possible to anticipate the times but I don't want to jeopardize the investment plan necessary to improve quality: Wi-Fi connectivity, bookshops, aircraft. I perceive a certain optimism for the drop in oil prices, but it's not that simple: today Alitalia still loses every day, we have to keep our feet on the ground". To be precise, the plan estimates losses at 203 million this year and 44 million in 2016. So first the return to operating profit, then development and hiring.
THE SHAREHOLDER
“We wouldn't have invested 560 million euros if we hadn't been sure we could get back on the investment”: James Hogan recalls that “Etihad is not a hit and run partner but a long-term investor”. He is happy to be back in Rome to present the company's plan and he doesn't hide that “there is still considerable work to be done. In the past - he continues - Alitalia was managed with a public company mentality, now we have to transform it into a successful business. The economic situation is still going through a difficult moment but the path necessary to get out of it in Europe is very clear: consolidate, make economies of scale. We have an equally clear mandate from our shareholders: to operate profitably. This bet is also the best guarantee for maintaining 11 jobs".
