The flag carrier ITA Airways has added the first owned aircraft to its fleet: an A-330/900. The purchase was financed through a bond issue worth 80 million euros, brokered by the investment company Castlelake, specialized in the management of assets in the aviation sector. It is certainly a recognition of trust from the financial world, but the state company has a red balance sheet.

And the management itself confirms it. The operation is "in line with ITA's strategy of combining the shareholder's own resources with a balanced contribution of debt capital" and marks a "fundamental stage in the development path outlined by the industrial plan which has the aim of bringing back the company to produce profits soon", declared the president Antonino Turicchi. 

An admission, to be read between the lines, that the state airline closed 2023 in the red. Let's reread: "Get the company back to producing profits soon". Clear: now the volume of outgoing money is greater than the incoming flow, so the accounts have a minus sign, they are in red. Yet Turicchi promised last year that the airline would reach break-even at the end of 2023. He stated this in English so as not to claim "balanced budget". 

This lack of transparency is evidenced by the failure to publish ITA's financial documents (two quarterly reports and the 2023 annual budget). Will Italian taxpayers be happy to pay for this A-330/900 out of their own pockets too? Will they be happy to know that in 2027 around 90% of the fleet will consume 25% less fuel? Italians just want to have an efficient service, which is currently not fully guaranteed. For this reason, many are looking forward to the ITA-Lufthansa wedding. 

On the same topic, see also the article published by AVIONEWS.