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Italy's Alitalia unveils new brand, underlines revitalization in global operations

Xinhua, June 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

Italy's largest airline Alitalia on Thursday unveiled its new brand and aircraft livery, underlining a revitalization of its business across Asia and other areas of its global operations.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi joined more than 1,500 Alitalia staff at a major launch event held at Rome's Fiumicino Airport.

The stylized tail logo which had characterized Alitalia since its first major rebrand 46 years ago was updated while retaining the same green, red and white colors of the Italian flag.

"The new planes have been presented. It seemed impossible two years ago, but Alitalia has come back to the strip and is ready to fly on new routes," Renzi said.

Over the past few years, Alitalia, a national symbol for decades, risked bankruptcy. Today it is a private company, with 51 percent of shares owned by Italian shareholders and 49 percent owned by Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates.

"Alitalia went through difficult years and dramatic moments, but today there are all the conditions to look at the future with optimism," Chairman of Alitalia Luca Cordero di Montezemolo said at the launch event.

Cordero di Montezemolo stressed Alitalia has plans to link Italian cities to big countries in Africa and the Far East. "Today the Rome-Seoul flight was launched," he said. Last month Alitalia introduced a new non-stop service between Milan and Shanghai, he highlighted.

"A new route connecting Rome with Beijing will be introduced after the summer," Cordero di Montezemolo went on saying. "We are making big efforts to take Italy out into the world, but also to bring the world to Italy," the chairman stressed.

On Thursday, Alitalia also announced product upgrades across all classes of service on its international fleet. It said Wi-Fi connectivity will progressively be made available on all long-haul aircraft, together with revamped movie galleries and inflight entertainment.

As part of its 2015 summer schedule, Alitalia flies to 102 destinations, including 27 Italian and 75 international destinations, with a total of 164 routes and about 4,500 weekly flights.

In addition to the revenue boost from new direct and codeshare routes, Alitalia will also benefit from non-revenue synergies with Etihad Airways which will be worth more than 15 million U.S. dollars in 2015. Endit