Andrea Benassi has been the General Manager of ITA Airways since July 2023. Born on June 2, 1970, in Rome, he received his high school diploma in scientific studies from the Pasteur State High School in Rome in 1989. He subsequently graduated with top honors in Business Economics from La Sapienza University in 1995. Over the years, he has also
attended numerous professional training courses, further enhancing his skills and expertise. Andrea Benassi began his apprenticeship at an accounting firm, where he provided accounting and tax consultancy services until 1997. In the same year, he joined the Alitalia Group, initially undergoing training in the Commercial Department and later working as a Sales Analyst. Over his more than 20-year career with the airline company, he held various managerial roles in Aviation Security, Network, Fleet, and Revenue Management. In 2013 he was appointed Director of Network thanks to the design and implementation of the Fiumicino re-hubbing project In 2016, he joined VimpelCom (now Veon), a leading international telecommunications and technology company with over 200 million customers operating in 13 countries, particularly in Russian-speaking markets (Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Georgia), emerging markets (Algeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Laos, Zimbabwe), and Italy. At VimpelCom, he was appointed as the Director of Pricing, responsible for ensuring the consistency of pricing strategies across each business unit with the Group’s overall strategy. The following year, Andrea Benassi was called back to Alitalia by Luigi Gubitosi, the then Commissioner of the airline company, to assume the role of Pricing & Revenue Management Department Head. During his tenure, he was tasked with ensuring, in line with the Industrial and Marketing Plan, the maximization of passenger revenue through the planning, definition, and management of pricing strategies and access to inventory based on the offered capacity and demand. Subsequently, from January 2019 to November 2020, he held the position of Director of Network & Fleet Planning for the Group. In December 2020, he was then appointed as Director of Network Planning, Fleet, and Alliances at ITA Airways. In addition to being among the individuals involved in the launch of the new Italian airline project, Andrea Benassi also participated in defining the Industrial Plan and negotiations with the European Commission to obtain authorization and clearance, which was granted on July 15, 2021. The airline was launched on October 15 of the same year. Between February 2022 and May 2023 he was involved in due diligence process with MSC and Lufthansa, with Certares (an US fund) and Delta Airline and again with Lufthansa, contributing to the finalization of the agreement between the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) and Lufthansa.
