Alitalia
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| Alitalia | ||
|---|---|---|
| Image:Alitalia.png | ||
| IATA AZ | ICAO AZA | Callsign ALITALIA |
| Founded | 1946 (as Aerolinee Italiane Internazionali) | |
| Hubs | ||
| Focus cities | ||
| Frequent flyer program | MilleMiglia | |
| Member lounge | VIP Lounge | |
| Alliance | SkyTeam | |
| Fleet size | 186 | |
| Destinations | 87 | |
| Parent company | Alitalia Group | |
| Headquarters | Rome, Italy | |
| Key people | Maurizio Prato (Chairman) | |
| Website: http://www.alitalia.com | ||
Alitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane (Italian for Alitalia - Italian Air Lines) (BIT: IT0003331888) is the flag carrier airline of Italy. Headquartered in Rome, it operates services to 28 domestic and 74 international destinations. The airline's hub is Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport, Rome. Although Malpensa International Airport, Milan is currently one of Alitalia's hubs, it is in the process of being downgraded to a focus city. The transition should be complete by April, 2008, leaving Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport, Rome as the airline's only hub. [1]
Contents |
[edit] History
Alitalia was established on 16 September 1946 as Aerolinee Italiane Internazionali, more commonly known as Alitalia, an Italian portmanteau of the words ali (wings) and Italia (Italy). 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 from Turin to Catania 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 25 million passengers annually. In 1997 it set up a regional subsidiary Alitalia Express and in 2001 became a member of the SkyTeam Alliance. In November 2003 Alitalia announced that it would cut 2,700 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 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.
Alitalia is owned by the Italian Ministry of the Treasury (49%), other shareholders, including employees (49%) and Air France-KLM (2%). However, because of financial troubles, the Italian government announced its willingness to lead Alitalia towards privatization by lowering its part of ownership in it. A public notification was announced on January 2007. The buyer must acquire at least 30.1% of Alitalia, must guarantee the airline's 18,000 jobs, domestic routes, and the Italian identity of the Alitalia brand, according to the tender document published on the Treasury Web site. Italy has invited bids for at least 30.1% of Alitalia's shares, to be submitted by Jan. 29, 2007. Under Italian law, a buyer of more than 30% of a company must make a public offer to buy out the other shareholders. In July 2007 the last of the bidders for Alitalia backed off.
Alitalia employed 18,182 staff as of March 2007.[1]
The airline's frequent flyer program is named "MilleMiglia", and is part of the SkyTeam alliance program, allowing passengers to collect miles and redeem them with free tickets across the whole alliance.
[edit] News
New attempts are in the making to sell the 49.9% stake of the Italian government. On December 6, 2007 three parties (Air France-KLM Group, an investmentgroup lead by businessman and lawyer Antonio Baldassare, and the Italian domestic carrier Air One) presented offers to purchase Alitalia. The Board of Directors of Alitalia planned to announce the winning bidder and have a sale agreement in place by Christmas 2007. Italy's transport minister Alessandro Bianchi said in December 2007 he does not favour a further slippage of the ongoing privatisation of the State's 49.9 percent stake in Alitalia SpA into next year. Mr Bianchi said "I would exclude a delay into 2008. We are pushing to close by the end of the year, as planned. A slippage would not be opportune". The chairman of the Board of Directors of Alitalia Maurizio Prato declared his support for the offer of the Air France-KLM Group. The Italian government announced 20 December 2007 that they will postpone a decision until mid January 2008.
[edit] Financial situation
Alitalia has lost money for years due to labour problems and government and political interference with the attempts to solve them. It has reported only one year of a profit since its foundation in 1946. Alitalia has reported net losses of more than €2.6 billion between 1999 and 2005. The Italian government and some other organizations have invested €2.8 billion of fresh capital since 2002. Alitalia's troubles are so severe that Consob, Italy's stock market regulator, requires it to report monthly on its debt and cash positions. By the end of May 2007 debt had risen to €1.05 billion and net available funds had fallen to €466 million.
In September 2007, Maurizio Prato, its chairman, told senators in Rome "Alitalia is in a comatose state, it is in the intensive care unit," according to ANSA news agency. Further he said: "Personally, I am surprised by the general refusal to accept reality and by the fact that a company in this state does not have the possibility, even though it is listed on the stock market, to make autonomous decisions even if this is needed for its survival".
The airline is close to facing bankruptcy if it keeps losing money at the current rate. The government may no longer offer support to the failing airline since it has been forbidden by the European Union to inject new capital. Alitalia has several options like attracting fresh capital from commercial banks or the selling the stake of the Italian State or devising a way for the Italian State to inject new capital in accordance with European rules.
[edit] Volare Group
Volare Group (Volareweb, Air Europe) had gone bankrupt. In December 2005, the Italian Government put it up for sale. Alitalia bid to buy the group (other bidders were Air One and Meridiana/Eurofly). Air One went to court claiming that Alitalia could not buy Volare as it had received state aid in the past. The TAR (Regional Administrative Tribunal) of Lazio tried to block Alitalia's acquisition of Volare Group but abandoned the attempt, claiming that Alitalia had repaid its 400 million Euro loan and so there would be nothing stopping it from buying Volare Group. Air One also went to court, 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, the Italian Consiglio di Stato (State Council) on 23 May 2006 has once again blocked the acquisition of the airline. It is not clear what is going to happen as Volare is in serious financial difficulties.
On November 2, 2006 TAR court decided that the administrative procedure used by the Italian government to sell Volare to Alitalia was invalid. But the selling contract is still valid because the administrative court was declared incompetent about this topic. If Air One wants to obtain Volare it will have to go to the local civil court and ask it to declare that the selling contract is invalid.
[edit] Alitalia Servizi
Carlo Cimoli, after becoming President and CEO of the Alitalia Group, divided the group into two holdings to cut costs. 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 Lufthansa 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. It provides passenger handling in Brussels, Athens and Frankfurt. Alitalia Servizi is 49% owned by Fintecna (State agency). By 2008 it 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.
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 SkyTeam alliance.
In 2001 Alitalia renewed the ground handling contract with SEA.
In September 2007, Alitalia announced that it would nearly halve its hub at Malpensa and instead focus on Rome-Fiumicino. The move aims to cut as many as 150-170 of the airline's 370 flights per day, including the termination of nearly all transatlantic service. Until this announcement, Malpensa had long since been Alitalia's primary hub for intercontinental flights.
[edit] Lawsuits and complaints
The company's attitude towards its customers has sparked both testimonials and complaints on the web.
Alitalia filed a lawsuit against the website AlitaliaSucks.com in the US courts, claiming the violation of various trademark laws – the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, the Lanham Act, and the state common law of trademark. The corporation's bid to fine and silence the creators of the website was withdrawn when Public Citizen, a US national non-profit consumer advocacy organization stepped in to support the website's owners according to the First Amendment.
In December 2005, Italy's antitrust agency fined Alitalia €30,000 for misleading consumers by advertising a round-trip flight tariff while showing only the price of a one-way ticket. The antitrust agency in a statement said the advertisement appeared on Alitalia's web site during May and June. "The advertisement, that appeared on the main page, indicated that the price was particularly good value," the antitrust agency said in a statement. It went on to call the advertisement "misleading."
[edit] Destinations
[edit] Fleet
The Alitalia fleet consists of the following aircraft as of May 2007:[1]
| Aircraft | Total | Passengers (Magnifica*/Economy) | Routes | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airbus A319-100 | 12 | 126 | Domestic/International short-medium haul | |
| Airbus A320-200 | 11 | 153 | Domestic/International short-medium haul | |
| Airbus A320-200 | 4 | 180 | Domestic/International low-cost short-medium haul | Operated by: Volare Airlines |
| Airbus A321-100 | 23 | 187 | Domestic/International short-medium haul | |
| ATR 72 | 10 | 66 | Domestic short haul | Operated by: Alitalia Express |
| Boeing 767-300ER | 13 | 214 (25/189) | International medium-long haul Accra, Boston, Caracas, Chicago, Delhi, Dubai, Lagos, Mumbai, Newark, Shanghai, Toronto | |
| Boeing 767-300ER | 2 | 350 | International charter medium-long haul | Operated by: Air Europe |
| Boeing 777-200ER | 10 | 291 (42/249) | International long haul Buenos Aires, Miami, New York JFK, Newark, Osaka, São Paulo, Tokyo (Narita) | |
| Embraer ERJ 145 | 14 | 48 | Domestic/International short haul | Operated by: Alitalia Express |
| Embraer 170 | 6 | 72 | Domestic/International short haul | Operated by: Alitalia Express |
| McDonnell Douglas MD-11F | 5 | Cargo - international medium-long haul | Operated by: Alitalia Cargo | |
| McDonnell Douglas MD-82 | 75 | 141 164 | Domestic/International short-medium haul |
*Magnifica is the name of the Business Class offered on International medium-long haul flights.
The average fleet age of Alitalia is 12.3 years as of February 2007.[2]
[edit] Incidents and accidents
Seven Alitalia flights have been hijacked, and 18 aircraft accidents/incidents involved Alitalia planes[3]:
| Date | Aircraft | Location | Description | Injuries | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fatal | Serious | Minor | Uninjured | ||||
| December 18, 1954 | Douglas DC-6 | New York City, New York | Crashed During 4th Landing Attempt Circled 2 1/2 Hours | 26 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| May 5, 1972 | Douglas DC-8 | Palermo, Italy | Crashed Due To Inclement Weather | 115 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| December 23, 1978 | McDonnell Douglas DC-9 | Palermo, Italy Punta Raisi Airport | Crashed Into Sea Short from Runway | 107 | 0 | 0 | 21 |
| November 14, 1990 | McDonnell Douglas DC-9 | Zürich | Crashed | 46 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
[edit] References
- ^ a b c "Directory: World Airlines", Flight International, 2007-03-27, pp. 72-73.
- ^ Fleet Age
- ^ ASN - Aviation Safety Database
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
Members of SkyTeam |
|---|
Aeroflot •
Aeroméxico •
Air France •
Alitalia •
China Southern Airlines •
Continental Airlines •
Czech Airlines •
Delta Air Lines •
KLM •
Korean Air •
Northwest Airlines |
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