Alitalia

"Alitalia" is an Italian portmanteau of the words ali (wings), and Italia (Italy).

On 26 August 2008 a group of Italian entrepreneurs along with Intesa Sanpaolo, one of the major Italian banks, founded Compagnia Aerea Italiana (CAI) with the aim of buying the trademark and some of the assets of the bankrupt Alitalia — Linee Aeree Italiane and to merge these with Air One, another Italian carrier. Only the Alitalia trademark would be kept for the merged company.

On 30 October 2008 CAI offered €1,100 million to acquire parts of the bankrupt airline. The offer was submitted to Alitalia's bankruptcy administrator despite refusal by some pilots and flight attendants' unions to agree to the rescue plan.

The bankruptcy administrator and the Italian government, major shareholder of Alitalia, agreed to CAI's offer on 19 November 2008. Alitalia's profitable assets were transferred to CAI on 12 December 2008 after CAI paid €1.052 billion ($1.33 billion), consisting of €427 million in cash and the assumption of responsibility for €625 million in Alitalia debt.

On 13 January 2009 the new Alitalia re-launched operations. The owners of Compagnia Aerea Italiana sold 25% of the company's shares to Air France-KLM for €322 million. Air France-KLM also obtained an option, subject to certain conditions, to purchase additional shares after 2013. The French as well as the Italian boards agreed to the sale.

In January 2010, Alitalia celebrated its first birthday since the relaunch. It carried 22 million passengers in its first year of operations and hopes to increase this number in 2010.

On 1 February 2010, it was announced that Alitalia crew would go on a four hour strike over wages. This was the first strike action for Alitalia since the relaunch. Alitalia representatives were not too bothered about the strike, as it was only a four hour strike and the first one in 13 months of operations. They went on to say that the company was still making great progress and should break even by 2011.

On 11 February 2010, Alitalia announced that, starting from the summer season, it would be using Air One as a "low-fare" airline, with operations based in Milan Malpensa Airport, focused on short-haul leisure routes. With initially 5 airplanes (Airbus A320), and 10 by 2012, Alitalia hopes to carry 3 million passengers in 2012 from Milan Malpensa (compared to 1.5 million in 2009), of which 2.4 million will be carried by the new Air One "Smart Carrier".

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The new Alitalia has a habit of changing slogans. The following slogans have been used in the past year and a half:

"Voliamo dalla stessa parte" (we fly on the same side)

"Alitalia fa volare l'Italia" (Alitalia makes Italy fly)

"Alitalia vola con te" (Alitalia flies with you)

"Fatti per volare alto" (Made to fly high)

"Alitalia, al lavoro per te" (Alitalia, working for you)

"Muoviamo chi muove l'Italia" (We move the people that keep Italy going)

"The pleasure of flying Made in Italy"

The old Alitalia, since 2005, year in which the new modernised logo was introduced, used a mix of:

"Volare, nella tua vita" (Flying, in your life)

"Volare in compagnia dell'Italia" (Fly Italian)

SkyTeam

A Boeing 767-300ER, registered as EI-DBP, is seen here in SkyTeam livery (2010)

The new Alitalia inherited Alitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane's membership of the SkyTeam alliance. Alitalia-LAI originally joined in 2001.

Alitalia has since opened up code-share agreements with SkyTeam members, allowing passengers to fly to numerous destinations using a single Alitalia ticket.

In July 2010, Alitalia joined leading SkyTeam members Air France, KLM and Delta's Transatlantic Joint Venture, meaning that the profits on flights across the Atlantic are shared between the four airlines.

MilleMiglia

The airline's frequent-flyer programme is named "MilleMiglia" (thousand miles), and is part of the SkyTeam alliance programme, allowing passengers to collect miles and redeem them with free tickets across the whole alliance.

It also grants access to Alitalia's Privilege clubs, Ulisse, Freccia Alata, and finally Freccia Alata Plus, depending on how many miles you have collected in a year, with various advantages depending on the club. These clubs give access to SkyTeam Elite (Ulisse) and SkyTeam Elite+ (Freccia Alata, Freccia Alata plus).

Finance and load factors

Alitalia head office in Fiumicino

2009

Alitalia revealed that their load factor for the first quarter of 2009 was 51%, around 20 points lower than major carriers like Air France, British Airways and Lufthansa who all had load factors in the 70-75% region.

Second quarter results show Alitalia with an increase in load factors rising from 51% to 65%, a 27.5% increase.

In the first quarter of 2009, Alitalia announced they had lost €210 million, but in the second quarter they said they had lost €63 million, which shows a decrease in losses.

On 29 July 2009, Alitalia released financial report for their first 6 months of operations. Alitalia was the largest domestic airline in Italy, and the third airline for international flights from/to Italy.As of 4 October 2010, Alitalia has overtaken EasyJet and is in second place internationally.

In the second semester of 2009, a break-even situation was announced, with losses for 2009 therefore amounting to approximately 270 million euros, most accumulated in the first quarter of the year. The load factor was up to 74% in the summer season while the year average amounts to about 65%. Rocco Sabelli, the CEO, said that he expects an 'uphill struggle' for 2010 while profit should be possible by 2011, in line with plans.

2010

Alitalia Embraer ERJ 170

On 12 May 2010, Alitalia released their first quarter 2010 results. According to the press release, the first quarter results were very good with an increase by 12.5 points for load factor bringing the total up to 64.5%. Passengers increased as well with notably an increase of 35% in intercontinental passengers. Losses were narrowed down to 125 million, a 40% decrease compared to last year. Finally, on-time performances increased by 8 points, in fact Alitalia has recently been nominated Europe's most punctual airline. The airline's strong point in this area is the Milan Linate-Rome route, with over 90% of flights on time.

On 30 July 2010, Alitalia declared their second quarter results, and compared them to those of 2009. Losses were narrowed down to 4 million Euros, down approximately 94% from last year's 63; load factors were increased by 6 points from last year to reach an average of 71%; passengers increased, notably on international and intercontinental routes; on-time performances were drastically improved from last year and confirmed themselves in the first semester above the average, with 82.5% of flights on time. Alitalia confirmed their objective to break-even in 2011.

On 28 July 2010, the third quarter results were revealed. Load factors were of 76%, up almost 2 points from 2009. Alitalia now has 53% of the capacity share on domestic routes. Financial analysis showed a 56 million profit, up 373% from 2009's 15. 7.1 million passengers were carried (+11% from 2009). International passengers increased by 13.8% compared to 2009, intercontinental passengers increased by 8.3% and domestic passengers increased by 10.3%. In the first nine months of 2010 17.7 million passengers were carried, up 6.2% from 2009.

Destinations

 Alitalia destinations

Alitalia serves 83 destinations; 28 domestic and 55 international, in 38 countries (at December 2010).

Codeshare agreements

Alitalia has codeshare agreements with the following airlines, besides SkyTeam members:

Air Alps, airBaltic, Air Italy, Baboo, Bulgaria Air, Air China, ChinaAirlines, Cyprus Airways, Darwin Airline, Etihad Airways, 

Jat Airways, Kuwait Airways, Luxair, Malaysia Airlines, 

Malév Hungarian Airlines, TAP Portugal, Ukraine International Airlines, Fleet, 

As of December 2010, the combined Alitalia fleet including Alitalia (AZ), CAI First (former Alitalia Express) (XM), CAI Second (former Volare Airlines) (VE), Air One (AP)and Air One CityLiner (CT) consists of the following aircraft:

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Historical Fleet

Since startup in January 2009, the new Alitalia has also operated the following aircraft types:

Boeing 737-300

Boeing 737-400 (aircraft are now in subleasing to other airlines)

[edit]Magnifica Business Class enhancement

In November 2009, Alitalia began to upgrade their international business class, named Magnifica, on all aircraft. The upgrade consists of:

New catering (regionally focused, changing monthly and including a new selection of wines and "spumante" changes prepared in cooperation with the Italian Sommelier Association)

New blankets / duvets / cushions / linens by Frette

New amenity kits by Culti

New china by Richard Ginori

The upgrade is initially only fully available on select routes to/from North America, and partially offered on other routes.

The new Magnifica Class seats on Alitalia's new Airbus A330-200 aircraft deliveries are lie flat seats which can be seen here. They will be also retrofitted on the 10 B777 aircrafts, beginning in 2012.

Listed here are incidents since relaunch of operations of Alitalia on 13 January 2009.

On 15 January 2010, Alitalia Flight 60, a Boeing 767-300ER, damaged its plastic bumper covering on the aircraft's tail skid whilst taking off from New York City's John F Kennedy International Airport. The incident was reported to ATC by Delta Air Lines pilots who then passed the information on to the Alitalia pilots. The Alitalia pilots decided to circle JFK for 1 hour to burn off enough fuel to make a safe emergency landing. The FAA said that the aircraft did not over rotate and that the passengers were never at any risk.[

On 17 February 2010, an Alitalia flight from Rome to Cairo, Egypt with 157 passengers, had to make an emergency landing in Cairo after a reported bomb threat. A notable passenger on the flight was Egyptian Tourism Minister Zuheir Garana.

On 15 June 2010, Alitalia Flight 615, an Airbus A330 with 258 passengers, from Boston, USA to Rome was forced to make an emergency landing at Logan Airport after an engine failed shortly after take-off. The incident is still under investigation.

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