C.A.I. First S.p.A. was an Italian airline operating flights for its parent company,

Alitalia Alitalia - Società Aerea Italiana S.p.A., operating as Alitalia (), was an Italian airline which was once the flag carrier and largest airline of Italy. The company had its head office in Fiumicino, Metropolitan City of Rome Capital. The ai ...

, to preserve slots at Milan Linate Airport. For this reason Alitalia when merged with

Air One Air One S.p.A. was an Italian low-cost airline which operated as Air One "Smart Carrier". It operated as Alitalia's low-cost carrier subsidiary with operating bases located in Catania–Fontanarossa Airport, Palermo Falcone–Borsellino Airpo ...

didn't close C.A.I. First, which at that time still operated as Alitalia Express. It used to have bases at

Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport Leonardo is a masculine given name, the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese equivalent of the English, German, and Dutch name, Leonard. People Notable people with the name include: * Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), Italian Renaissance scientist ...

in Rome and

Malpensa Airport Milan Malpensa Airport is the largest international airport in northern Italy, serving Lombardy, Piedmont and Liguria, as well as the Swiss Canton of Ticino. The airport is northwest of Milan, next to the Ticino river dividing Lombardy and Pie ...

in Milan. C.A.I. First was dissolved and merged into Alitalia mainline by February 2015. The name ''C.A.I. First'' was only a legal name and wasn't used in public, all of its flights were branded as ''Alitalia''.

History

Early years

Embraer 170-100LR, Alitalia Express JP6898134

The airline was established as a subsidiary of

and started operations on 1 October 1997. It was founded from the defunct Avianova. It was announced that Minerva Airlines would be acquired by Alitalia in March 2003 and that Alitalia Express's fleet would be transferred, but the plan did not go through.

Air One and Alitalia merger

In December 2008, Compagnia Aerea Italiana (C.A.I.) took over Alitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane and

, merging the two companies together to create the "new

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

Air One CityLiner The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing for ...

. The Alitalia Express brand has been phased out and the regional arm of Alitalia is now Alitalia CityLiner by rebranding Air One CityLiner. The last fleet of Alitalia Express, 10

Embraer 170 The Embraer E-Jet family is a series of four-abreast narrow-body short- to medium-range twin-engine jet airliners designed and produced by the Brazilian aerospace manufacturer Embraer. The E-Jet was designed as a complement to the preceding E ...

, was completely phased out by March 2013. Only one

Airbus A320-200 Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: '' ...

(EI-DSC) from mainline Alitalia was moved in the fleet to preserve the slots. The same solution had been used with C.A.I. Second which used to be ''Volareweb.com''. On 6 February 2015, the airline was dissolved and its operations integrated into Alitalia mainline.

Fleet

Prior to its shutdown in February 2015, the fleet consisted of the following aircraft:

Fleet history

Over the years, Alitalia Express has operated the following aircraft types:

References

External links

{{SkyTeam Airlines established in 1997 Airlines disestablished in 2015 Alitalia Defunct airlines of Italy Italian companies established in 1997 Italian companies disestablished in 2015 Former SkyTeam affiliate members