The The Italian national airline Alitalia, Bankrupt, he made his last flights on Thursday before his official withdrawal, which It marks the end of the 74-year-old company and age for Italy.

Assistant A flight at Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci Airport in Rome, thanked passengers for their loyalty before boarding Flight AZ1581 at noon to Cagliari, Sardinia.

Alitalia’s last scheduled flight was the return flight from Cagliari, flight AZ1586, which was scheduled to land at 11:00 p.m. Thursday.

Alitalia, which has been operating in the red for more than a decade, will be replaced by a new national carrier, ITA, or Italy Air Transport, which begins operations on Friday.

The European Union’s executive committee has agreed to inject 1.35 billion euros ($1.58 billion) of public funds into the new airline, but ITA only plans to hire about a quarter of Alitalia’s 10,000 employees.

In recent weeks, Alitalia workers have staged strikes and protests to denounce the treatment they are receiving and what for many is the latest episode after years of crisis. They questioned the viability of the new airline, claiming that downsizing its size, workforce, routes and fleet was likely intended to make it attractive for purchase by a foreign airline.

guild leader Antonio Amoroso told the Foreign Press Association on Thursday That it was “a failed plan from an industrial point of view that does not serve the country and does not serve the society, which is being asked for a huge amount of money, which seriously affects the workers.”

Among its lines, ITA plans to operate flights to New York from Milan and Rome, and to Tokyo, Boston and Miami from Rome. European destinations from Rome and Milan Linate Airport will also include Paris, London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt and Geneva.

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