Italy’s national airline, Alitalia (CAI) as we all know by now, will be the title sponsor Aprilia’s World Superbike effort for the next two years.
Alitalia, who is still in the red (on Tuesday there was a 4 hour strike) will be spending three million euros to see the RSV4 machines ridden by Max Biaggi and Leon Camier with Alitalia tricolor livery, even if according to Italian financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore, there was a foreign company who offered more than Alitalia to sponsor the team, but it was judged that bringing the two Italian brands together would be more profitable.
The all Italian alliance saw Roberto Colaninno through his IMMSI (50,009% owned) and share holder and chairman of Alitalia (7,08%) and who controls the the Piaggio Group (53,6%) abstain from voting on the sponsorship deal to avoid any conflict of interest …