Italy
The change of the guard between the historic Alitalia and the newly created ITA as Italian flag carrier is less than a month away, but the situation is far from defined, airlinegeeks.com reported. Alitalia is going through its bankruptcy procedure and will stop flying on Oct. 15; on the same date, new state-owned carrier Italia Trasporto Aereo (ITA) will take over some of its routes and will begin its adventure with 52 aircraft and 2,800 employees, putting it at roughly half the size of its predecessor.
Dozens of Sicilian towns are facing bankruptcy due to the cost of cleaning up the volcanic ash left by Mount Etna, which has been erupting regularly since February, The Guardian reported. The Italian government on Monday allocated €5m to compensate several villages struggling to pay to get rid of the volcanic cinders, the cost of which can reach more than €1m with every eruption. “The situation is very serious,” said Alfio Previtera, a council official in the town of Giarre, one of the villages most affected by Etna’s ash.