The Italian Government has announced it will move to scrap a lease agreement with Alitalia (AZA, Rome Fiumicino) involving an A340-500 that has been used for VIP/Presidential flights.
Owned by Etihad Airways (EY, Abu Dhabi International), I-TALY (msn 748) is operated for the Italian Air Force/Aeronautica Militare Italiana by Alitalia. The contract was signed during the Renzi administration when Etihad first acceded to the now-bankrupt Italian carrier's share capital.
"The intention is to terminate the Airbus A340-500's lease agreement, previously purchased for state flights. [This is] a commitment that I have had and we have had since we started our movement; [It is] a sacrosanct decision which is far from symbolic," Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said in social media post last week.
"We're talking about EUR150 million euro being spent for an eight-year leasing contract, including EUR20 million to reconfigure it, for an aircraft that was almost never used. Money that the Italian taxpayer had entrusted to the government!"
Conte's anti-establishment Lega/Movimento 5 Stelle coalition government, which has made the reduction in wasteful state expenditure a key policy hallmark, took aim at the previous Partito Democratico (PD) administration under whose watch the agreement was signed.
However, former prime minister Matteo Renzi has since rejected the current government's accusations that the aircraft was acquired for his own use.
"That aeroplane was not for me, but for the international business trips. I never set foot in it," he said in a corresponding post.
