Ala Littoria


Ala Littoria S.A. was the Italian national airline that operated during the fascist regime in the 1930s and 1940s.

History

Ala Littoria was formed by a merger of Società Aerea Mediterranea, Società Anonima Navigazione Aerea, Società Italiana Servizi Aerei and Aero Espresso Italiana in 1934.
The airline was owned by the Italian government and predominantly featured the Italian flag on its aircraft. It also showed the fascism symbol in some routes.
The airline used mainly state-of-the-art aircraft from Savoia-Marchetti, but other Italian aircraft were used in the late 1930s.
The first commercial flight in Italy was started in 1923, 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.
In 1934 Ala Littoria was enlarged and started some flights toward European countries, like France, and also toward the eastern Mediterranean region
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.
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, that established a world record on long distance civil flight and allowed to start the prestigious Linea dell'Impero the next year, in 1935.
The Imperial Line 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. It connected Rome with Mogadiscio in Italian East Africa, and from 1939 the route could be travelled without a change of airplane with a state-of-the-art- Savoia Marchetti SM 75.
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, 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.
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.

Airports connected

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:
seaplane of the airline.
of Ala Littoria
Seaplanes
Airplanes

Fatal accidents