During the 1960s it became one of the main private airlines of Italy, until its collapse in the early 1980s, following the destruction of Flight 870, also known as the Ustica disaster.

The Herons were replaced in 1963 with the larger Handley Page Dart Herald, a pressurised turboprop liner.

[2] Itavia operated a domestic network, augmented by charter flights and some European routes during the holiday season.

In 1972 the company registered its head office in Catanzaro, primarily to benefit from subsidies and tax relief designed to assist businesses in the south of the country, but its administrative base and management team remained in Via Sicilia in Rome.

Activity was again suspended in December 1980, following the crash of Flight 870 earlier that year and the deaths of all 81 people on board.