AEROMEDIA
The Italian Aerospace Information Web
by Aeromedia - corso Giambone 46/18 - 10135 Torino (Italy)

Genoa and Turin Seek their Own Airlines

Many new Italian airlines started activity recently. Two important towns in North-western Italy, Turin and Genoa, are still lacking a local airline to fully exploit peculiar traffic opportunities in both areas.
In the past months, substantial rumours regarding a new Ali Liguria, backed by local industries and township, aroused positive expectation in Genova, but the project is far from its operational start. In the late sixties, Genoa was included in the network of Aertirrena: the Florence based "third-level" operator started services with a Queen Air and a cople of Islanders, later replaced by Yak-40s. These small Russian three-engined airliners were successively operated by Air 70 and later by Avioligure. Unfortunately, at the time, all these promising enterprises were unable to match the Italian air transport monopolistic structure.
Turin, in the early sixties, was home to SATT (Società Avio Trasporti Torino), a very ambitious project in its early stage, later becoming a parcel-like operator for Fiat car spare parts delivery. In 1978, the Turin/Caselle airport was the initial base of Aeral - Italian Charter Airlines, which incautiously moved to Rome/Fiumicino. In recent years Turin lost also charter operator Eurofly SpA, a Eurofly Service off-shoot, which almost immediately transferred its technical assets to Bergamo, then moved all its activity to the Milan area.
Now Franco Cimminelli, a Turin based entrepeneur, already a stake-holder in Azzurra Air and Air Vallée, plans to acquire cash-strapped Federico II Airways, based at Foggia, South-east Italy, and equipped with a small fleet of Dornier 328 twin-turboprops. If the buy-out succeeds, Cimminelli will have interests in three different regional airlines, and in the position to develop new traffic opportunities for Turin.

In the pictures: Fokker F27 Mk 600 I-ALML of Avioligure (s/n 10470 ex PH-FTR), on the apron of Firenze/Peretola airport, September 1979 and Douglas DC-7B I-SATA in the colours of SATT - Italian Air Cruises, at Turin/Caselle airport in 1963 (photo by Aeromedia)

(Aeromedia, April 2001)