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Italian national airline that operated during the fascist regime in the 1930s and 1940s From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ala Littoria S.A. was the Italian national airline that operated during the fascist regime in the 1930s and 1940s.[1]
| |
| Founded | 1934 |
|---|---|
| Ceased operations | 1945 |
| Operating bases | Littorio Airport |
| Parent company | Government of Fascist Italy |
| Headquarters | Italy |
Ala Littoria was formed by a merger of Società Aerea Mediterranea (SAM), Società Anonima Navigazione Aerea (SANA), Società Italiana Servizi Aerei (SISA) and Aero Espresso Italiana (AEI) in 1934.
The airline was owned by the Italian government and predominantly featured the Italian flag on its aircraft.
The airline used mainly state-of-the-art aircraft from Savoia-Marchetti, but other Italian aircraft (like "Breda" and "Caproni") were used in the late 1930s.
The first commercial flight in Italy was started in 1923,[2] but it reached full international service only with "Ala Littoria" that was promoted by Mussolini with a name related to the "Fasci Littori" of his Fascism.
Like many other European nations did in their early phases of civil aviation, Italy initially formed several small companies that struggled to provide a modest level of passenger service. The first of these was the Aero Expresso Italiana (AEI), founded on December 12, 1923, which began offering services in August 1926. By 1930, there were five other Italian airlines, including the Società Italiana Servizi Aerei (SISA), the Società Area Navigazione Aerea (SANA), the Società Area Mediterranea (SAM), and the Società Area Avio-Linee Italiane (ALI). Almost all of these early Italian air services were state-owned or state supported. The only major exception was the ALI, which was backed by the powerful Fiat industrial empire, a builder of automobiles. The three biggest airlines, SISA, SANA, and SAM, equally split the Italian civil aviation market, carrying about 10,000 passengers per year by 1930. If in 1925, it seemed like Italians hardly had a civil aviation sector, by 1930, they had made rapid progress (when "Ala Littoria" was created). In fact, Italian commercial aviation in 1930 was third in terms of the number of passengers carried, after Germany and France, and ahead of Great Britain and the Netherlands.[3]
In 1934 Ala Littoria was enlarged and started some flights toward European countries, like France, and also toward the eastern Mediterranean region[4]
After the Spanish Civil War, Ala Littoria invested in Iberia, the Spanish airline that was established following the demise of LAPE. Ala Littoria acquired 12,5 % of the airline and purchased three Junkers Ju 52 airframes without engines from Lufthansa, giving them to Iberia in lieu of capital.[5]
| Linea dell'Impero aircraft | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Savoia-Marchetti SM.75 "Marsupiale" of Ala Littoria |
Ala Littoria flew to destinations across Europe and the Italian colonies in Africa. In 1934 was done an experimental flight from Rome to Mogadiscio in Italian Somalia,[6] that established a world record on long distance civil flight and allowed to start the prestigious Imperial Line (Linea dell'Impero) the next year, in 1935.
Linea dell'Impero was the longest route in Africa by Ala Littoria in the years preceding World War II and was considered the most prestigious Italian air route of the time.[7] It connected Rome with Mogadiscio in Italian East Africa, and from 1939 the route could be travelled without a change of airplane[8] with a state-of-the-art- Savoia Marchetti (civilian) SM 75.[9]
In March 1938 the airline did the first record flight from Rome to Argentina with the route Roma-Cagliari-Bathurst/Gambia-Bahia-Rio de Janeiro-Buenos Aires, using a special hydroplane of the model Cant Z 506,[10] but later the company was substituted by the newly created LATI for the Latin American flights.
Ala Littoria routes in 1940 grew to 37,110 km, mainly in the Mediterranean and Africa. This gave Italy the fifth most extensive air routes in the world (after the US, the USSR, Germany and the UK).
During the Second World War, Ala Littoria acted as a transport service for the Italian military. However the airline did not survive the war and was disbanded. It was substituted after the war by Alitalia – Linee Aeree Italiane, that was established on 16 September 1946 as "Aerolinee Italiane Internazionali" and later was called Alitalia.
In 1940 Ala Littoria reached and connected the following airports:
Italy
Northern and Eastern Italian Africa
Europe
Middle East and Africa
In 1940, Ala Littoria's fleet included 39 Seaplanes and 74 landplanes:
Airplanes
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