Background The first scheduled Italian flight, operated by Società Anonima Transadriatica, took off from
Venice-Lido Airport on 18 August 1926. It was headed to Vienna via
Klagenfurt and was operated with
Junkers G 24 trimotors. Initially carried out on an experimental basis, the service became regular on 1 February 1927. On 19 April, the route was extended to include three weekly flights to Vienna with Junkers G 24s. Commercial aviation in Italy grew steadily in the following years. In 1928, the main civilian airport in Italy, Littorio Airport (now
Rome Urbe Airport), was inaugurated in the presence of
Benito Mussolini. Initially, it was operated by
Compagnia Nazionale Aeronautica, a private company founded in 1920 by Count Giovanni Bonmartini. According to website "Century of Flight":
Foundation and early expansion 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) on 28 October 1934 (the 12th anniversary of the
March on Rome). Ala Littoria was established by the fascist government, at the behest of
Benito Mussolini, who suggested the name. The aviator
Umberto Klinger was appointed president. The airline was owned by the Italian government and predominantly featured the Italian flag on its aircraft. At the time of its foundation, the company's fleet consisted of various state-of-the-art aircraft, including
Savoia-Marchetti S.55 and
S.66,
Junkers G 24 and
F 13,
Dornier Do J and
Do R, and
Fokker F.VII. Initially, the company had a large fleet of
seaplanes, as utilising rivers, lakes, and waterways as landing strips avoided the need to invest in large-scale infrastructure, such as airports. However, as air traffic and customer demand grew, several conventional airports were built. To remain competitive with foreign rivals, Ala Littoria began incorporating land-based aircraft into its fleet, including
Savoia-Marchetti S.73, initially designed as bombers but converted for civilian use. As president and chief executive, Klinger oversaw the expansion of his air company's Mediterranean and Northern European networks and the implementation of regular trade links between the mother country and the Italian colonies in the Horn of Africa and the rest of Africa. In 1934 Ala Littoria was enlarged and started some flights toward European countries, like
France, and also toward the eastern Mediterranean region Following agreements with
Lufthansa and
KLM, Ala Littoria launched a daily service from
Milan via
Frankfurt am Main to
Amsterdam on 7 May 1935. A similar agreement with
Air France enabled Ala Littoria to commence daily flights from
Rome via
Marseille to
Paris in 1936. This profitable route primarily used the new four-engine
Savoia-Marchetti S.74 aircraft, which could reach speeds of around 300 km/h and carry 24 passengers. A further agreement with
Imperial Airways in 1935 improved connections to Africa, particularly via
Brindisi and
Khartoum. In 1935, Ala Littoria acquired Adria Aero Lloyd, which operated routes to
Albania, and Nord Africa Aviazione (founded in 1931). 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.
The Imperial Line and World War II 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
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. 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 (civilian) 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 (after the
United States, the
Soviet Union,
Germany and the
United Kingdom). Following Italy's entry into
World War II, civil flights were suspended. In 1941, the General Staff of the
Regia Aeronautica imposed the militarisation of civil aviation, placing it under the control of the Special Air Service Command (SASC). During the War, Ala Littoria acted as a transport service for the
Royal Italian Army. However the airline did not survive the war and was fully disbanded by mid-1945. ==Airports connected==