Ambitious Aeroitalia Reveals 18 Additional Summer Routes From Forli

It is exciting when a startup airline plans to solve a problem in a particular geography, whether by launching key unserved routes, offering much lower fares where there's little price competition, or with a higher quality product where the true identified need for it isn't being met. It's particularly good if it's scalable and can meaningfully grow. However, the history books are littered with new airlines that expanded too quickly, spread themselves too thinly, or tried to be everything to everyone.

Introducing Aeroitalia

The first commercial flight of new entrant Aeroitalia was in the summer of 2022. It initially flew from Forli, an airport that Ryanair served until 2009 as an alternative to Bologna. The Irish giant returned to Forli in September 2022, albeit not on the same routes as Aeroitalia. In what appears to be an unrelated development, Aeroitalia's plans from the airport were quickly dashed. Currently, no flights are bookable from Forli.

Soon thereafter, Aeroitalia revealed Milan Bergamo – Ryanair's third most-served airport. Its first domestic route, unserved Rome Fiumicino, took off in November. In December, Aeroitalia announced 24 more routes from Bergamo, many of which are already served by another carrier. They are to be operated by 737-800s. It came just before it revealed new services from Florence, such as London Heathrow. It started on December 26th and ended on January 4th, potentially one of the world's shortest-lived routes.

Given Florence's renowned short runway and to enable economically high payloads, Aeroitalia leased a 19.8-year-old, 148-seat 737-700 (YR-BMR) from Romania's Hellojets, which Flightradar24 shows entered service in late December. The aircraft was formerly with now-defunct Romanian operator Blue Air. It cannot be a coincidence that Aeroitalia's Chief Commercial Officer was previously with Blue Air or that Hello Jets was seemingly created by Blue Air's former majority shareholder.

YR-BMR with Blue Air — (Photographed in June 2022 when operated by Blue Air.)

Photo: Mike Burdett via Flickr.

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18 routes are coming from Forli

Alongside Bergamo and Florence, Aeroitalia is returning to its Forli roots (routes?). It has revealed 18 from the airport, some of which were operated previously and none of which are bookable as of January 13th but will be soon. They appear to be operating on behalf of GoToFly and GoToTravel, with Aeroitalia providing the aircraft.

Almost all the routes won't use the 737-800. Instead, they'll use the 737-700 (it is unknown if it'll be YR-BMR or if more are coming) and the ATR-72. It is presently using an 8.4-year-old, 68-seat ATR-72-600 (YR-ACA) from Romanian operator AirConnect.

Flightradar24 shows that YR-ACA started flying for Aeroitalia on September 26th, adding complexity very soon after starting. In recent days, it has been flying between Bergamo and Fiumicino. It is believed that it'll also use YR-ACB from AirConnect.

Photo: AirConnect.

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The 18 routes

The first to launch, on March 26th, will be Forli to both Naples and Trapani. However, most are summer-seasonal and tourist-driven and will operate for a relatively short time in the peak season. The 18 routes include Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, a great city that I visited a few years ago. Some 296 miles (476km) from Forli, Aeroitalia's link will also appear to Catholic tourists visiting the pilgrimage site at the nearby Medjugorje.