Alitalia
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| Alitalia | ||
|---|---|---|
| IATA AZ | ICAO AZA |
Callsign Alitalia |
| Founded | 1946 (as Aerolinee Italiane Internazionali) | <tr><th colspan="2">Hubs</th><td>Malpensa International Airport|
| Fleet size | 179 | |
| Destinations | 101 | |
| Headquarters | Image:Flag of Italy.svg Rome, Italy | |
| Key people | Giancarlo Cimoli (Chairman & CEO) | |
| Website: http://www.alitalia.com | ||
Alitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane (ISE: IT0003331888) (IATA: AZ, ICAO: AZA, and Callsign: Alitalia) is the national airline of Italy. Headquartered in Rome, it operates services to domestic and international destinations. The airline's hubs are Malpensa International Airport (MXP), Milan, and Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport (FCO), Rome.
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[edit] History
Alitalia was established on 16 September 1946 as Aerolinee Italiane Internazionali (more commonly known as Alitalia). It started operations on 5 May 1947, in which year it carried over 10,000 passengers. The inaugural flight was with a Fiat G-12 Alcione, piloted by Virginio Reinero between Turin and Rome. The first international flight left a year later, travelling between Milan and cities in South America. On 31 October 1957 Alitalia merged with Linee Aeree Italiane and took on the name of Alitalia Linee Aeree Italiane.
By the 1990s, Alitalia was carrying nearly 25 million passengers annually. In 1997 it set up a regional subsidiary Alitalia Express and in 2001 it became a member of the SkyTeam Alliance. In November 2003 Alitalia announced that it would cut 2700 jobs over the next three years to prepare the airline for a merger with Air France and KLM. In April 2004 Alitalia acquired bankrupt regional airline Gandalf Airlines to gain additional slots at several European airports, mainly in Milan (Linate) and Paris (Charles De Gaulle).
In September 2004 the airline found itself in serious financial difficulties, with management saying it did not have enough cash to pay worker salaries past the end of that month. It announced plans to lay off 5000 employees and to split the company into two divisions, an airline and a ground services division. It also said it was reconsidering its alliance with Air France. Talks went on with unions for pay cuts and layoffs, in an attempt to keep the company out of bankruptcy and possibly liquidation. On September 24, the company announced that it had reached an agreement with unions allowing access to a bridging loan from the Italian government. While more money may be needed in early 2005, the airline seems to have avoided the threat of bankruptcy.
Alitalia is owned by the Italian Ministry of the Treasury (49%), other shareholders, including employees (49%) and Air France-KLM (2%). It employs 20,653 staff (at November 2005).
"MilleMiglia" is Alitalia's membership card that allows customers to save miles and trade them for free tickets.
[edit] Volare Group
Volare Group (Volare Airlines, Volareweb, Air Europe) had gone bankrupt and the Italian Government named a manager to bring it back in the air. In December 2005 the Italian Government put it up for sale and Alitalia ended up being the airline to offer more money and better conditions (according to Rinaldini, head of Volare Group). Second came Air One and third Meridiana/Eurofly. However, Air One went various times to court claiming that Alitalia could not buy volare has it had received state aid in the past. The "T.a.r. del Lazio" (Regional administrative tribunal of Lazio) almost managed to block Alitalia's acquisition of Volare Group but then it changed idea after less than a month. The T.a.r. claimed that Alitalia had repaid its 400 million Euro loan and so there would be nothing stopping it from buying Volare Group. Air One later on went to court again unsuccessfully. Alitalia created Volare SpA to buy the Volare Group. The airlines are getting closer to each other and Volare Group has started providing soft maintenance services for some Alitalia aircraft in Milan Malpensa airport.
However, in Italy the sale of Volare is considered a soap-opera as the "Consiglio di Stato" on the 23rd of May 2006 has once again blocked the acquisition of the airline. At the moment it is not clear what is going to happen as Volare is in serious financial difficulties and before a whole sale is organised again the airline might finish the cash.
On 2nd Novembre 2006 T.a.r. court decided that the administrative procedure used by Italian government to sell Volare to Alitalia was invalid. But the selling contract is still valid because the administrative court declared to be incompetent about this topic. If Air one wants to obtain Volare will have to go to the local civil court and ask it to declare that the selling contract is invalid.
[edit] Alitalia Servizi
Cimoli, after becoming President and CEO of the Alitalia Group in order to cut costs divided the group into two holdings. Alitalia (referred to as Alitalia Fly) controls Alitalia Express, Volare SpA, Volare Airlines and Air Europe. Furthermore it controls 51% of Alitalia Servizi SpA which owns the following companies:
Alitalia Airport (100%): ground handling services in Rome Fiumicino, Palermo, Cagliari. It provides passenger handling services in: Catania, Naples.
Alitalia Maintenance Systems (60%): maintenance services, it is 40% controlled by Lufthans Technik.
Atitech (100%): maintenance services in Naples.
Alitalia Servizi also provides IT services for the Alitalia Group (which will be partly outsourced) and ground handling in London Heathrow. Alitalia Servizi provides passenger handling in: Brussels, Athens and Frankfurt
Alitalia Servizi is 49% owned by Fintecna (State agency). By 2008 Alitalia Servizi could be sold as a whole or piece by piece as the agreements with the trade unions prevent Alitalia from selling Alitalia Servizi before 2008.
[edit] Malpensa hub
In 1995 Alitalia signed a partnership with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines which aimed at a merger. The aim of the partnership was developing Malpensa hub along with Amsterdam (which lacked enough landing slots to further develop) and Rome Fiumicino. The problem was that in Milan there are two airports: Milan Linate (close to city centre but small) and Milan Malpensa (far from city but big and expandable). The Italian Government planned to move all flights to Milan Malpensa apart from Milan-Rome Fiumicino.
The EU airlines went to the European courts as they claimed that the development of Milan Malpensa and the closing of Milan Linate would provide an anti-competitive situation in favour of Alitalia. They claimed that Alitalia could go on feeding its Fiumicino hub from Linate but they could not. Furthermore they claimed that Malpensa was too far (40 km) and lacked the infrastructure to/from the city (the rail link would open 1 year after the opening of the hub). After many court disputes the EU decided to leave 33% of the flights in Linate until the rail link would be opened.
On the first week of operation there were many problems in the airport: the SEA-Aeroporti di Milano (Milan Airport Authority and the only handling agent at the time) staff did not know the airport well and a lot of luggage was mishandled. After about a week the situation became normal.
Shortly before the rail link opened the Transportation Minister changed. Treu was replaced by Bersani, and on the day before the remaining flights were supposed to transfer from Linate to Malpensa, he signed a document blocking the transfer of flights. This led to an overall confusion as many tickets were sold to Malpensa but then the flights were flying to Linate! KLM broke the alliance with Alitalia and Cempella (head of Alitalia) was replaced by Mengozzi who had the role of getting Alitalia back on track. In 2000 he signed a 2% share exchange with Air France and in 2001 joined the Sky Team.
Furthermore in 2001 Alitalia renewed the ground handling contract with SEA (instead of setting up Alitalia Airport ground services like in Rome Fiumicino). This was a debatable decision as the customer would deal with SEA and not Alitalia staff. In 2006 Malpensa was never fully developed (nor was Rome) and many flights were cut (such as Los Angeles)
[edit] Destinations
- Further information: Alitalia destinations
[edit] Fleet
[edit] Passenger
Image:Ideic5.jpg The Alitalia fleet consists of the following aircraft as of July 2005:
| Type | Total | Passengers (Ottima*/Unica) | Routes | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airbus A319-100 | 12 | 126 | Domestic Routes | |
| Airbus A320-200 | 11 | 153 | Domestic Routes Dakar, Northern Africa; Tehran | |
| Airbus A321-100 | 23 | 187 | Domestic Routes Tel Aviv | |
| Boeing 767-300ER | 13 | 214 | Accra, Boston, Caracas, Chicago, Dubai, India, Lagos, Shanghai, Toronto | |
| Boeing 777-200ER | 10 | 291 | Buenos Aires, Miami, New York City, Newark, Osaka, Sao Paulo, Tokyo | |
| McDonnell Douglas MD-82 | 74 | A:141 B:164 | Domestic Routes | A:International 2 Class B:Domestic 1 Class |
*Ottima Class is offered on Domestic and Short Haul Flights. Magnifica Class is offered on International Medium-Long Haul Flights. </center>
It also has ATR 72, Embraer ERJ-145 and Embraer ERJ-170. The Embraer aircraft are mainly operated by subsidiary airline Alitalia Express.
The average fleet age of Alitalia is 12.3 years as of September 2006.
[edit] Cargo
The Alitalia Cargo fleet consists of the following aircraft as of August 2006: <center>
| Type | Total | Routes | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| McDonnell Douglas MD-11 | 5 | Cargo Operations |
</center>
[edit] Incidents and accidents
- Six Alitalia flights have been hijacked.
- There have been at least four aircraft incidents involving Alitalia planes:
On December 18, 1954 a Linee Aeree Italiane Douglas DC-6 crashed on its fourth approach attempt to land at Idlewild (now John F. Kennedy International Airport), after circling for 2.5 hours. 26 of the 32 passengers on board were killed.
On 5 May 1972 an Alitalia DC8-43 flew into the side of a hill near Palermo, Italy, during an approach in darkness and poor weather; the seven crew members and 108 passengers were killed.
On 23 December 1978, an Alitalia DC9-32 crashed into the sea about two miles short of the runway of Palermo Punta Raisi Airport during its approach; all five crew members and 103 of 124 passengers were killed.
On November 14, 1990 in Zurich an Alitalia aircraft crashed killing all passengers on board a half-filled McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32.
[edit] Livery
Alitalia's livery is a Eurowhite scheme, composed of primarily white with green and red accents. Alitalia's livery was recently updated. The first plane re-painted in Alitalia's new livery (a MD-82) re-entered service on October 27, 2006.
[edit] External links
| Members of the SkyTeam Alliance | ||
| Aeroflot • Aeroméxico • Air France • Alitalia • Continental Airlines Czech Airlines • Delta Air Lines • KLM • Korean Air • Northwest Airlines Future members: China Southern Airlines | ||
| Airlines of Italy | Image:Flag of Italy.svg |
|---|---|
| | |
el:Alitalia Linee Aeree Italiane es:Alitalia fa:آليتاليا fr:Alitalia id:Alitalia it:Alitalia he:אליטליה hu:Alitalia nl:Alitalia ja:アリタリア航空 pl:Alitalia pt:Alitalia scn:Alitalia fi:Alitalia sv:Alitalia zh:意大利航空
