The Italian Aerospace Information Web
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AirOne Opens its Fourth Base at Catania Airport

On October 1, 2012, AirOne – Alitalia Group’s Smart Carrier – will inaugurate its fourth operational base at the Catania/Fontanarossa airport, in Sicily. It will complement the Airline’s three previous bases in Italy: Malpensa, Pisa and Venice.

Two AirOne Airbus A 320s will be initially based at Catania. From October 1, 2012 to March, 2013, they will serve five domestic destinations, three of them new: Turin (twice daily), Verona (once daily) and, from October 28, Venice (twice daily). At the moment, the Venice service is operated by Alitalia Compagnia Aerea Italiana.

As of October 28, with the start of the Winter Schedule, each of the two destinations already served by AirOne from Catania have gained five more weekly services - Malpensa is now boosted to 24 while Pisa gains proportionally even more, passing from 7 to 12 round trips a week.

(Editor’s note: AirOne was bought by CAI in December, 2008, and was initially destined to fully merge with the “old” Alitalia, to form a new company, Alitalia CAI. In reality, on March 20, 2010, the AirOne brand took off again from Malpensa airport, as the Alitalia Group’s “Smart Carrier”. But, as we will see, the continuing existence of AirOne is not an exception. Most likely due to pre-existing crew contracts, all the various subsidiaries of both Alitalia and AirOne in activity before the 2008 merger still exist, although with different names. At October, 2012, the list of the Italian companies holding the AOC - Air Operator Certificate – includes the following airlines within the Alitalia Group:

Alitalia - Compagnia Aerea Italiana SpA – three-letter ICAO airline designator AZA; ICAO-approved radio call-sign “Alitalia”; operational bases at Rome/Fiumicino, Milan/Linate, Turin/Caselle and Catania/Fontanarossa [until October 27, 2012]. The Venice/Tessera base has been recently handed over to AirOne and Alitalia CityLiner [former AirOne CityLiner].
CAI First SpA [ex Alitalia Express] - three-letter ICAO airline designator SMX; ICAO-approved radio call-sign “Aliexpress”; fleet consisting of one Airbus A 320-216 registration EI-DSC based at Milan/Linate airport.
CAI Second SpA [ex Volare Airlines] - three-letter ICAO airline designator VLE; ICAO-approved radio call-sign “Vola”; fleet formed by the Airbus A 320-214 registration EI-IKB based at Milan/Linate airport.
Air One SpA - three-letter ICAO airline designator ADH; ICAO-approved radio call-sign “Airone” [pronounced aer-o-ne, which is Italian for heron]; fleet consisting of two Airbus A 320-214, registrations I-WEBA and I-WEBB, and by six A 320-216s, registrations EI-DSK, EI-DSL, EI-DSR, EI-DSS; EI-DST and EI-DSX; local operational bases at Malpensa, Venice/Tessera, Pisa and Catania/Fontanarossa.
Alitalia CityLiner SpA [ex AirOne CityLiner] - three-letter ICAO airline designator CYL; ICAO-approved radio call-sign “Cityliner”; fleet consisting of the remaining Bombardier CRJ-900s, 5 Embraer ERJ-190s and 13 ERJ-175 [2 more ERJ-175 regional jets will be delivered next November and December, 2012]; bases at Rome/Fiumicino, Milan/Linate, Venice/Tessera, Trieste/Ronchi dei Legionari and Naples.

To complete the picture, the ENAC AOC list includes also the Rome/Ciampino-based Air One Executive SpA business aviation specialist. The company’s web-site quotes a fleet consisting of three aircraft: Falcon 20F-5B, registration I-ULJA, Falcon 2000, registration I-GEFD and Falcon 2000LX, registration EI-TDV. Notwithstanding the “Air One” name, it appears to have no connection with the Alitalia Group, except that the Falcon 200LX is reportedly operated by Alitalia.)

In the picture: Airbus A 320-216 EI-DSK, one of the eight aircraft operated by AirOne, lands at Malpensa airport in August, 2012. (Aeromedia)

(Aeromedia, September 2012)