Alitalia Express S.p.A. was a regional airline

Regional airline

Regional airlines are airlines that operate regional aircraft to provide passenger air service to communities without sufficient demand to attract mainline service...

 based in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 and a wholly owned subsidiary of Alitalia

Alitalia

Alitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane S.p.A. , in its later stages known as Alitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane S.p.A. in Extraordinary Administration, was the former Italian flag carrier...

. It operated regional scheduled and charter services on behalf of Alitalia. Its main bases were Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport

Leonardo da Vinci International Airport

Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport , also commonly known as Fiumicino Airport, is Italy's largest airport with 36.3 million passengers served in 2010, located in Fiumicino, 35 km from Rome's historic city centre....

, Rome, and Malpensa International Airport, Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

. Since the Alitalia / Air One merger, Alitalia Express was formally changed into CAI-First and currently operates flights on behalf of Alitalia at Milan Linate Airport

Linate Airport

Linate Airport is one of the three major airports of Milan, Italy, along with Malpensa Airport and Orio al Serio Airport. Due to its closer proximity to Milan—it is east southeast of the city, compared with Malpensa, which is northwest of the city—it is mainly used for domestic and short-haul...

 

History

The airline was established and started operations on 1 October 1997. It was founded from the defunct Avianova. It had 710 employees by 2007. In March 2003 it was reported that Alitalia was considering taking over Minerva Airlines

Minerva Airlines

Minerva Airlines was an airline based in Italy. The airline suspended operations due to bankruptcy on 25 October 2003. It had operated eight Dornier 328-110 aircraft partly under a codeshare agreement with Alitalia....

 which had suspended flight operations and transferring the turboprop fleet of Alitalia Express to Minerva Airlines

Minerva Airlines

Minerva Airlines was an airline based in Italy. The airline suspended operations due to bankruptcy on 25 October 2003. It had operated eight Dornier 328-110 aircraft partly under a codeshare agreement with Alitalia....

. This did not happen and in September 2004 Alitalia announced plans to acquire twelve additional Embraer E-170

Embraer E-Jets

The Embraer E-Jets are a series of narrow-body, twin-engine, medium-range, jet airliners produced by Embraer, a Brazilian aerospace conglomerate that produces commercial, military, and corporate aircraft. Announced at the Paris Air Show in 1999, and entering production in 2002, the aircraft series...

 aircraft for Alitalia Express. This did not happen, either.

Air One and Alitalia merger

In December 2008, Compagnia Aerea Italiana (CAI) took over Alitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane and Air One

Air One

Air One "Smart Carrier" is Alitalia's LCC subsidiary based in Milan Malpensa Airport and headquartered in Fiumicino, Italy. Before the merger with Alitalia, Air One was a competitor, the second largest airline in Italy, with a high-frequency scheduled network to 36 destinations in Italy, Europe and...

 merging the two companies together to create the "new Alitalia

Alitalia

Alitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane S.p.A. , in its later stages known as Alitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane S.p.A. in Extraordinary Administration, was the former Italian flag carrier...

". With the take over, the CAI also received Alitalia Express and Air One CityLiner

Air One CityLiner

Alitalia CityLiner was founded as Air One CityLiner S.p.A. It was a subsidiary of Air One until it merged with the Compagnia Aerea Italiana on 12 January 2009 and its planes are now used on behalf of Alitalia group...

. The Alitalia Express brand is being phased out and the regional arm of Alitalia will become Alitalia CityLiner by rebranding Air One CityLiner. The fleet of Alitalia Express is being phased out.

Fleet

As of September 2011, the Alitalia Express fleet consists of the following aircraft:

Alitalia Express Fleet

Aircraft	In Fleet	Orders	Passengers				Notes
			J	Y+	Y	Total
Embraer E-170 Embraer E-Jets The Embraer E-Jets are a series of narrow-body, twin-engine, medium-range, jet airliners produced by Embraer, a Brazilian aerospace conglomerate that produces commercial, military, and corporate aircraft. Announced at the Paris Air Show in 1999, and entering production in 2002, the aircraft series...	3	0	var.	0	var.	72	Being phased out until 2012

As of 20 May 2010, the Alitalia Express average fleet age was 5.9 years old.

External links

• Alitalia