Ita’s Altavilla: “With labor agreement in hand, we will find partners by mid-2022”

“With the employment agreement, Ita will be able to find a partner by mid-2022,” Alfredo Altavilla, the CEO of Italian airline Ita, said in an interview with Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore .

“The dialogue with the trade unions has never stopped, times have been speeded up by the need to make an alliance,” Altavilla said. “I told the unions that in the data room with the potential partner I put all the company contracts into it, so if you don’t make an agreement, I put in the regulation and it is permanent ”.

Yesterday, an agreement was signed with eight unions that transforms the company’s regulations into a national air transport contract, after the breakdown of negotiations in September. Unions and management also signed a new agreement on industrial relations and a supplementary contract for Ita to raise salaries, which had been cut when Ita’s predecessor, Alitalia filed for bankruptcy.

The agreement was signed by the outgoing president of Assaereo, said Altavilla. “We have made a quantum leap from company regulation to national employment contract, and to this we have added a company supplement. We have included company welfare, health insurance for all ground employees who did not have it before, and an increase in the premium for air crews. We have signed a new industrial relations protocol and a regulation of the performance bonus,” said Altavilla. Salaries will be progressively re-aligned, beginning with an increase of 3% for pilots and 1% for assistant flight crew.”

When asked what changes with these agreements, Altavilla replies: “The union must acknowledge that these months of hard confrontation have made them recognize Ita as a startup, and that only with competitive labor costs will we be able to join an airline alliance. The union recognizes that the performance bonus is part of the variable remuneration worth 15% of the total. We agreed on these fundamental values. The performance bonus is based on two criteria: the economic profitability of the company measured by EBITDA and customer satisfaction,” said Altavilla.

Since its debut earlier this year, the Ita has already transported more than 700,000 passengers.

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