Alitalia receives first EMB190s
Its "Parco Nazionale del Vesuvio" (Vesuvius National Park) the name of the first of 20 Embraers that will revamp the Alitalia Regional Fleet. The ceremony was yesterday in Brazil at San Josè dos Campos, present Rocco Sabelli airline CEO. The 100 seater Embraer 190s commence the phase out of the old 16 jets now in fleet with Alitalia. The last Embraer will land in Italy at end of 2012. Its the first addition of an order signed by Compagnia Aerea Italiana, the company that in 2008 has took over the old Alitalia and AirOne. Previously the brand new planes delivered comes from AirOne orders.
5 new jets will be in fleet before the end of 2011. The nexts in 2012 and the order amounts to 400 million € in leasing. This business is right from the marketing point of view because will allows to cover the italians and international flows of small size.
First revenue flight planned for this EMB190s is Rome-Vienna. They are five 100 seater EMB1900s and fifteen 90 seater Embraer 175s. These planes are expected to be deployed not on the major trunk routes, but on mid size legs inside Italy or from Italy to abroad. They are full performant with 3000 Kms of range for EMB175s and 4000 in case to use the EMB190s. They has a speed of 890 Km/h and the target is to offer a good efficient service at reasonable management costs on routes where is very difficult to top up 180-200 passengers. In those market the first were low cost carriers and now the legacy ones with fares not too far away from rivals.
Alitalia was already an Embraer customer with 14 EMB145s from 2000 and than six EMB170s in 2003."What was imore important in the choice of the Brazilian regional jet has been the preference of our customers - Sabelli said- We offered three options for frequent flyers and all have expressed a liking for the products Embraer indisputable. "Alitalia's fleet of over 150 aircraft will be revolutionized in 2013 with the purchase of 62 aircraft (1 billion 700 million euros) and with a complete redesign of the rest. the first Embraer 190s aircraft has been delivered ten days in advance. Sabelli thanked the Embraer and hoped soon to be launched in the presence of the Brazilian manufacturer in Italy.
"We are going to close very well in the 3rd quarter" continues Sabelli - In the first time since Jan 2009 probably we will get a positive performance in the first nine months of 2011. We are confident to be in break even at end of the year and as in 2012 we will speak only of development.