Bebe (HE/BEB/GALLARATE)

Bebe (or bebefly.com) was an italian (U)LCC, which operated, beginning with 2004, from its main base at Milan-Malpensa, to numerous destinations, both leisure and city, all around Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. The airline would operate a fleet of mostly Airbus aircraft, beginning with just two A320-200s (EI-BEA and BEB), both painted in the distinctive bebe livery.

Bebe would have its roots in TEA, as several members of its board would come from the former TEA. As such, the airline's callsign of HE (the old TEA callsign) would be an inspired choice, dedicated at respecting the old airline, as well as its ATC callsign of Gallarate (honouring Malpensa's old airfield name).

The airline would be founded in February of 2003 by a group of investors, seeking to take advtantage of Alitalia's heavy losses and cutting of flights from Milan. Shortly after, in April of 2003, press conferences would report that bebe would be starting operations with the bustling summer season, with the airline finally obtaining its AOC and finishing negotiations with 6 destination airports (Barcelona, Bari, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, Paris-Beauvais, and Tenerife-South) for slots, however, Beauvais would ultimately be dropped before launch.

Bebe's first flight would take place on the 3rd of May 2003, being operated by an A320-200 flying completely full from Milan-Malpensa to Bari, and back. The airline would announce that, in its first weeks of operations, most flights would operate near capacity (load factors of around 75%), due to very low fares (ranging from 15€ upwards) stimulating demand. As such, more routes would be announced, namely, to Bucharest-Baneasa, Naples, Sofia, Tirana, and Wroclaw, as a way to expand in the aggressive and growing Eastern European LCC market.

In July of 2004, bebe's success would influence it to continue expanding. an order for three more A320-200s would be placed, along with the announcement of four new destinations from MXP, which were expected to commence during October, those being Budapest, Katowice, Prague and Valencia. As well as that, more frequencies on services to Bari, Naples, Bucharest and Tirana would be added, and Naples would be soft-launched as a base for the airline, with routes to Bucharest and Tirana being introduced and operated by a leased a319-100, shared with its Milan base.