New chapter for Neos
Italy’s second-largest airline overhauled its business model to survive the pandemic. Matteo Legnani caught up with Carlo Stradiotti, CEO of Neos, to learn more
Last
summer,
Neos
focused
its
passenger
flying
programme
on
the
Mediterranean.
Pictured
is
EI-NEO
(c/n
38785)
at
Cagliari,
Italy
in
August
2020
“We survived by transforming ourselves into an almost all-cargo airline – taking advantage of the extraordinary economics and operational performances of our Dreamliners, which allowed us to transport practically everything to and from any place in the world,” explained Carlo Stradiotti, CEO at Italian carrier Neos, summarising how his airline navigated the challenges of 2020.
Based at Milan’s Malpensa Airport, Neos was originally formed in 2002 by tour-operator giants TUI Deutschland and Alpitour. It became a more consolidated venture in 2004, when the latter bought out its German partner. In the two decades since, it has firmly established itself as the airline Italians use to go on holidays.
With a fleet built around the Boeing 737-800 for short- to medium-range journeys, and the Boeing 767-300 for long-haul flights, its pre-pandemic network spanned the Mediterranean and Canary Islands, as well as destinations across the Red Sea, Caribbean, and the Indian Ocean.
Despite Neos’s origins, very few flights were fully chartered by tour operators, with the majority being scheduled services sold as part of holiday packages and to individual travellers through the carrier’s website and travel agencies.
A question of survival
When global travel bans were issued by almost all countries to contain the pandemic – specifically prohibiting going overseas for tourism – many onlookers believed that Italy’s second-largest airline would come to an untimely end. Instead, Neos proved to be one of the few carriers that continued flying and it has actually grown its fleet over the past 18 months. In June 2021, the leisure firm made the courageous step to start its first-ever scheduled passenger flights to the United States, connecting its Milan/Malpensa home to New York/JFK.