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.

Reverse steering wheel

In a few hours, however, when the judicial calendar had already set the reckoning for next Wednesday in the middle of the Council Chamber of the TAR, the lawyers of Ita filed an application to waive the suspension on that first race. The motivation is concise: we are considering challenging the second call and, therefore, we prefer not to make use of the suspensive request already entered in the agenda of the Sardinian TAR. A choice that leaves many perplexities due to the contradiction with the bold statements of the management of Ita. The court's digital protocol, however, was again alerted a few hours later.

Volotea at the wheel

This time it was Volotea's lawyers who accessed the passwords of the deposit: they also renounced the request for suspension for their exclusion from the first race. In less than half a day, the robes of Ita, first, and of Volotea, later, inexplicably buried the hatchet, considering that the award is valid for only seven months and it is clear that the determination of the merit will take place, presumably, with the territorial continuity service already expired or about to expire. Certainly next Wednesday, November 3, the audience announced by all as the final showdown will not take place, or rather it will limit itself to taking note of this reversal, from war to peace, within a few weeks. What led Ita to give up the only possibility of being readmitted to the first race is a mystery, given that the hypothesis of a possible new appeal for the second call where the defeat was resounding and without appeal seems unreliable.

Dissolved proclamations

A decision that conflicts with the proclamations of the bloody days of the clash when the managers of the state company shouted from the rooftops: "We appealed to the Regional Administrative Court because, apart from who won, we do not believe that there were valid reasons for be excluded from the tender ". The statements of President Altavilla melt like snow in the sun, who used fiery words to comment on the exclusion: «We were put out after winning. We were the only competitors left, after the exclusion of the other company. We were excluded only for a formal reason that continues to be totally non-existent for us ».

No more haste

That reason should not have been so far-fetched given the renunciation of that suspensive evoked so much. Ita, therefore, takes not one, but many steps backwards, if it is true, as it is true, that the CEO of the state company, Lazzerini, had declared: "It is not true that we did not and do not have the requisites to guarantee territorial continuity. Instead, we think we have all the requirements. Above all, we hope that our appeal will be dealt with quickly and long before the Sardinians have to fly too much with another company ». So quickly that on the day of a full moon night, in the heart of administrative justice in Sardinia, Ita's lawyers decided to renounce the urgency and suspension of that exclusion. A doubt remains: why did Volotea also decide to renounce the request for suspension of its exclusion, given that with the readmission it would have saved a few tens of millions of euros? For the moment, high altitude mysteries.

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