Air One

If you stood at the fence in Rome or Milan in the 1990s and 2000s, you knew the sight: a Boeing 737 with a blue tail that at first glance looked like Lufthansa – and then had “Air One” on the fuselage after all. Air One was the private challenger to Alitalia, founded by a construction entrepreneur from Abruzzo, closely entangled with Lufthansa and, in the end, of all things part of the airline it had flown against for years. This page shows you how Air One came about, which aircraft it flew, how to recognize it in old photos and how the story ended in 2014.

Air One at a glance

Air One was an Italian airline that existed from 1983 to 2014 – first under the name Aliadriatica, from 1995 as Air One. Its rise is closely tied to one name: Carlo Toto, an entrepreneur from Abruzzo, took over the small company in 1988 and within a good ten years turned it into Italy’s second-largest airline. In 2007 Air One carried, depending on the source and the way of counting, between a good five and about seven million passengers.

The focus was on domestic traffic, above all on the trunk route between Rome Fiumicino and Milan Linate. There Air One went head to head with the then state airline Alitalia. It found a partner in the north: from 2000 Air One worked closely with Lufthansa, and the look of the fleet was no accident reminiscent of the crane airline.

The end came in two steps. In 2009 Air One was absorbed into the newly restarted Alitalia. From 2010 the name lived on as the low-cost brand “Smart Carrier,” until Alitalia, in the course of its partnership with Etihad, dissolved this offshoot as well. The last flight operations ended on October 30, 2014.

The history in stages

The beginnings were modest. In 1983 seven shareholders founded Aliadriatica in Pescara. In its first years it flew no scheduled service but aerial work and air taxi missions. In 1988 Carlo Toto took over, whose family had grown big in construction with Toto Costruzioni Generali.

It is remarkable how cautiously the entry into scheduled service went. The first routes from Linate complemented the Alitalia network rather than attacking it. Only with the new name in November 1995 did Air One go onto the route where the most money was made in Italy: Rome–Milan. At the end of 1999 the airline flew about 350 times a week to seven domestic destinations, with eleven Boeing 737s and about 700 employees.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code AP: appeared in the flight number, on tickets and departure boards.
• ICAO code ADH: used by air traffic control in the flight plan – a leftover from the Aliadriatica era.
• Callsign HERON: this is how the crews identified themselves on the radio.

The callsign is a small play on words. The name is pronounced “Air One” in English, but written as one word it gives “Airone” – the Italian word for heron. And the heron is called “heron” in English. The bird therefore also adorned the tail.

The fleet: from the Jetstream to the A330

Air One was for long stretches a Boeing 737 airline. The backbone was the 737-300 and 737-400, mostly leased. In early 2006 there were about 30 Boeing 737s in the fleet. Then came the switch to Airbus: in January 2006 Air One ordered 30 A320s with options on 60 more aircraft, and in May 2007 the order was increased to a total of 90 A320s.

Type	Period at Air One	Spotter note
BAe Jetstream 31	1991–1993	Two turboprops from the Aliadriatica era
Boeing 737-200	from 1994, until 2008	First jet, slim first-generation engines
Boeing 737-300	1995–2010	Classic generation, in scheduled service from 1995
Boeing 737-400	1997–2010	Largest group in the fleet, 27 examples in total
Boeing 737-800	2002–2004	Only a short episode with six aircraft
McDonnell Douglas MD-83	2006–2008	One of a kind, leased from Spanair
Avro RJ70	2006–2009	Two leased four-engine jets from Sweden
Airbus A320	from 2006	Replaced the 737, later the only type of the Smart Carrier
Airbus A330-200	2008–2009	Two aircraft for the USA flights

The information follows the fleet history in common reference works; individual numbers and exact years can differ slightly depending on the source. There were also other types leased briefly, such as a DC-9, a Fokker 50, a Saab 2000 and an ATR 42-300. The manufacturer of the most important types was Boeing.

If you are sorting old 737 photos of Air One, the guide Telling the Boeing 737 Original, Classic, NG and MAX apart helps. Between the 737-300 and 737-400, the fuselage length decides above all: the -400 is visibly stretched and has two overwing exits instead of one.

Air One CityLiner and the regional jets

In June 2006 Air One spun off its regional routes into a subsidiary of its own: Air One CityLiner. It flew new Bombardier CRJ900s. The subsidiary existed until 2009 and was then also absorbed into the Alitalia group. For your logbook the same applies as with many regional subsidiaries: visually it was Air One, but CityLiner operated the flights.

A short excursion into long-haul

In 2008 Air One ventured across the Atlantic. From June 14, 2008, Air One flew an Airbus A330-200 from Milan Malpensa to Boston, and from June 21 also to Chicago O’Hare. The two aircraft had 239 seats, 38 of them in business class. Partners on the US side were US Airways for Boston and United Airlines for Chicago.

In June 2008 Air One also ordered twelve A330s and twelve Airbus A350-900s. This order passed to Alitalia after the merger – Air One itself never operated an A350.

Lufthansa ties and Star Alliance

From 2000 Air One was firmly bound to Lufthansa. Almost all flights ran as codeshares, and Air One was also a partner in the Miles & More frequent flyer program. Lufthansa thus gained feeders in the Italian domestic network, and Air One gained access to a large European network – a constellation that fit well with the competition at the time between Lufthansa and the SkyTeam member Alitalia.

By mid-2006 Air One had codeshares with several members of Star Alliance, including Lufthansa, SAS, US Airways, TAP Air Portugal and Air Canada. In June 2006 management announced it was preparing to join the alliance – with Lufthansa’s support, at first possibly as a regional member.

Joining never happened. With its absorption into Alitalia, Air One practically switched to the SkyTeam camp. The partnerships dissolved in 2009: cooperation with Miles & More ended on March 28, 2009, and with the programs of United and Air Canada at the end of June 2009. How the three big alliances are built is explained in the article Star Alliance, oneworld and SkyTeam.

How to recognize Air One

The basic look was plain and striking at the same time: white fuselage, gray underside and a blue tail. Even in the Aliadriatica era the scheme recalled the classic Lufthansa livery, although Lufthansa held no stake in the airline then. From a distance Air One aircraft were therefore often mistaken for Lufthansa.

The detail made the difference: instead of the crane, Air One carried a stylized heron on the tail, plus the “Air One” titles on the fuselage. On the low-cost brand from 2010, the A320s kept flying in the Air One look, supplemented by the addition “Smart Carrier.”

After 2009 there were transition phases: former Air One aircraft flew for Alitalia, in part still with remnants of the old livery. The article on hybrid and mixed liveries helps place such mixed forms.

Alitalia’s competitor

Air One grew mainly at the expense of the state airline. In 2006 it put its share of the Italian domestic market, depending on the source, at about a quarter to just under a third, and Carlo Toto liked to stress that his airline had never received state money – unlike the partly state-owned Alitalia.

In 2007 Toto went a step further. When the Italian state wanted to sell Alitalia, Air One submitted an offer through the holding company AP Holding, backed by a banking group around Intesa Sanpaolo. In competition was Air France-KLM, which the government preferred. In early 2008 Air One even fought the exclusive negotiations with the French in court. The talks with Air France-KLM failed, however, in spring 2008.

Merger with Alitalia and Smart Carrier

In August 2008 the solution that Italy ultimately chose became known: an investor consortium, Compagnia Aerea Italiana (CAI), took over the viable parts of Alitalia and merged them with Air One. Air One contributed almost its entire fleet. On January 13, 2009, the new Alitalia started, and Air One was officially part of it. Over the course of the year booking systems and processes were harmonized – the two airlines practically became one.

The name did not disappear anyway. On March 28, 2010, Alitalia launched Air One “Smart Carrier,” a low-cost brand with five A320s of 180 seats each from Milan Malpensa. At launch it served nine domestic and five international destinations. After that the network grew through new bases:

In February 2013 the fleet consisted of nine A320s. On August 26, 2014, Alitalia announced the end – the restructuring with Etihad as majority shareholder no longer provided for a low-cost brand of its own. Catania, Palermo and Venice closed on September 30, 2014, and the remaining routes ended on October 30, 2014. Some of the connections and the aircraft went to Alitalia. In December 2014 the air operator certificate was revoked. The article Big airline collapses in Europe places this in the series of Italian airline failures and mergers.

Air One in everyday spotting today

For your logbook, Air One is a classic archive topic. If you photographed at Italian airports between 1995 and 2014, you have a good chance of an Air One 737 or an A320 on your memory card. With type, registration, place and date, these become clean entries.

The detective work is exciting. Many A320s from the Air One order kept flying with Alitalia after 2014, some later with ITA Airways. According to a report from early 2023, the last still recognizable ex-Air One example got the blue ITA colors at that time. How to trace an aircraft’s history through registration and serial number is explained in the guide How old is this aircraft?. And if you are in Rome today, you will find good vantage points in the guide Plane spotting in Rome Fiumicino.

Italy’s private airlines compared

Air One was not the only private airline that shaped Italy at that time. Meridiana from Sardinia, Volare Airlines and Wind Jet from Sicily also tried their luck alongside Alitalia – none of them flies today. Meridiana became Air Italy in 2018, which gave up in 2020. Leisure airlines like Blue Panorama, by contrast, relied mainly on charter and vacation traffic. Air One differed from the others above all in its size and the Lufthansa partnership.

Common mix-ups

• Mistaking Air One for Lufthansa – white fuselage and blue tail looked similar, but Air One carried the heron instead of the crane.
• Logging Air One as a Star Alliance member – joining was announced but never completed.
• Equating Air One with Alitalia – until 2008 Air One was independent, only from 2009 part of Alitalia.
• Logging CityLiner CRJs as Air One – the regional jets were flown by the subsidiary Air One CityLiner.
• Taking the Smart Carrier A320s for an independent airline – from 2010 Air One was an Alitalia subsidiary.
• Assuming long-haul from Rome – the USA flights with the A330 started in 2008 from Milan Malpensa.

Conclusion

Air One was the most successful private challenger Alitalia ever had: from an air taxi operation in Pescara to the number two in the country, with Boeing 737s, later A320s and even a brief detour to the USA. Its closeness to Lufthansa and the planned Star Alliance membership made it the counterpart of the SkyTeam airline Alitalia – until the merger in 2009 brought the two together. For spotters, what remains is an airline that is easily mistaken for Lufthansa and therefore needs a close look.