They knocked on the server in Piazza del Carmine without worrying about the time. At one o'clock in the morning of the new day, when the judicial calendar already marked Saturday 30 October, the lawyers of Ita, the state heir of Alitalia, filed an act as unexpected as it is surprising in the digital protocol of the Tar Sardinia: we renounce the suspension of the 'exclusion from the tender on territorial continuity. A sensational twist after the war proclamations of President Alfredo Altavilla and his CEO, Fabio Lazzerini.
The overturning plane
The two men from Ita had been without hesitation: «We will be readmitted to the competition and, at that point, many things will change». The reference was to the first tender, with a special and urgent procedure, to assign, for seven months, the territorial continuity from and to Sardinia. The turnaround, on the other hand, is unprecedented and without warning. The very powerful Chiomenti law firm, on behalf of Ita, in the middle of Saturday night, asked the Administrative Court of Sardinia to postpone the precautionary request that should have excluded Volotea and reinstated, in fact, the award to Ita. In the first tender, as will be recalled, the Spanish company, despite having made the best offers, was excluded from the Region for not having attached the photocopy of the identity card of its legal representative. Only later did the offices of the Regional Transport Department decide to cut Ita out of the competition as well, because it was deemed lacking sufficient aircraft to carry out the territorial continuity service. The story tells of a second tender where not only Volotea showed up with an identity card, but also attached an offer much more advantageous than the first, with a double discount.
The decrease of 42%
With a 42% discount the Spaniards scrambled Ita who lost all the Sardinian routes in one fell swoop. The state company had nothing left but to brandish the hatchet by threatening criminal complaints against the Region on the one hand and resorting to the TAR to cancel the exclusion from the first tender and, therefore, be awarded territorial continuity. It was the president of Ita, Alfredo Altavilla, who waved the certainty in the presentation conference of the blue company that that appeal to the TAR would have "kicked out" Volotea from the Sardinian routes and restored the "dominion" of the new state company.
