What will be the future of Alitalia, easyJet and Ryanair?
It will take years before air traffic will be able to absorb and dispose of the crisis: what lies ahead for Alitalia, easyJet and Ryanair? Marco Foti's article
A crisis that affects the entire sector of the airport sector, which seems to be based exclusively on airlines. Who thinks of the companies that manage the sector's production chain?
Despite the latest alarms launched by Assaeroporti , -75% of traffic in 2020 (approximately 53 million passengers compared to more than 200 million in 2019), the crisis affecting Italian airports does not seem to affect. All forces focused on the Alitalia issue (August Decree and 3 billion euros for the new company) while no one talks about the over 130 companies in the sector and the 40,000 workers.
In this deficit framework, our country is clearly lagging behind as it has not provided loans to the companies that manage airports, with the exception of the two-year postponement of airport concessions and the extraordinary cig until March 2021.
Could this be enough to protect the thousands of workers in the sector? The answers are provided by other countries (better to say governments).
Germany, for example, has allocated 1.36 billion euros for airports. Will it be a coincidence? No. In all countries the national airport system is essential for development, not only for tourism (in this period zeroed) but also, and above all today, for the mobility of citizens, workers and businesses.
The economic crisis due to the Covid pandemic has brought the whole system to its knees, unfortunately the data certify it. According to estimates reported in an economic report by Iata, the main trade association that brings together airlines, "the recovery will be long and tiring, it will take years before air traffic is able to absorb and dispose of the crisis into which it has plunged due to of the travel block for the coronavirus, the traffic volume will return to the levels of 2019 only in 2023 ".
Ita also comes to terms with the crisis and at the same time starts the discussion on the first indications of the new industrial plan which provides for 6,000 highly qualified workers placed on hold in Alitalia without certainty about their future, outside the production cycle and without guarantees on the maintenance of qualifications and certifications.
“Ita's positioning must necessarily be in the premium market sector” declared the new CEO in recent months. But the flight market has not recovered as expected so the industrial plan has some difficulties in being applied.
Pending the (re) birth of the new Alitalia and the reorganization plan of the sector, underway by the MIT, an economic recovery solution could point towards the strengthening of internal connections, the so-called domestic flights. The low cost airlines present in Italy (Ryan Air and EasyJet in primis) are providing, thanks to a more streamlined business management than traditional airlines, to the resumption of short haul flights, other companies are entering the Italian market to launch new routes national (Wizz Air).
Why not aim, even in the case of the new Alitalia, at the domestic market whose relations could withstand the crisis anticipated by Iata? A solution that would bring new life to the market in the sector and that economic dynamism that is so much needed today by the companies that manage Italian airports.
The MIT, for its part, could deepen its assessments, to protect the many workers in the airport sector, using not only the three billion fiche and the law 77/2020 but further structural measures to cover the serious losses suffered by the system consisting of a rich production chain (Handling, Airport Managers, Carriers, Catering, Maintenance).
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/quale-sara-il-futuro-di-alitalia-easyjet-e-ryanair/ on Sun, 03 Jan 2021 05:39:10 +0000.