Alitalia

From Free net encyclopedia

Template:Infobox Airline Alitalia (Template:ISE) (Linee Aeree Italiane) Template:Airline codes is the national airline of Italy. Headquartered in Rome, it operates services to domestic and international destinations. The airline's main base is Malpensa International Airport (MXP), Milan, with a hub at Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport (FCO), Rome.

1 History
2 Incidents and accidents
3 Lawsuits and complaints
4 Destinations
5 Fleet
6 External links

[edit]

History

Alitalia was established on 16 September 1946 as Aerolinee Italiane Internazionali, but more commonly known as Alitalia, and started operations on 5 May 1947, in which year it carried over 10,000 passengers. The inaugural flight, made by the very first plane in the fleet, was 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. Image:Alitalia.a321-112.i-bixd.750pix.jpg 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.

Adding to the troubled airline's difficulties Italy's Antitrust agency fined Alitalia EUR30,000 (USD$35,800) for misleading consumers by advertising a round-trip flight tariff but showing only the price of a one-way ticket on its official website (December 2005).

More recently the European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation of Italy's plans to restructure Alitalia to ensure that the ailing flag carrier does not receive illegal subsidies. The planned €1.2 billion, or $1.6 billion, recapitalization of the near-bankrupt carrier, that involves massive job cuts is expected to take place in the spring of 2006.

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]

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 all 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]

Lawsuits and complaints

Alitalia is infamous for its customer services when dealing with complaints and lost luggage. The company's attitude towards its customers has sparked a series of testimonials and complaints on the web. The climax of customer anger and frustration towards Italy's airline has led to the creation of Alitalia Sucks.com, a website dedicated to all those that have ongoing unresolved problems including lack of compensation for baggage claims and flight delays and cancellations.

Most recently, Alitalia has reneged on the honouring of tickets purchased through various online travel outlets for return trips from Toronto (YYZ) to Larnaca (LCA) that sold for only $33 in Business Class. Despite being quoted in the media as honouring the tickets issued in error, they have unilaterally begun to change routings for the flights, changed dates, eliminated stopovers from itineraries already ticketed (and per the rules) and have removed valid flight segments from LCA back to either Milan (MXP) or Rome (FCO). Calls to Alitalia refer recipients of the tickets to go back to their travel agency for handling, while calls to the travel agency refer you back to Alitalia. The unilateral rule changes are probably in violation of US, Canadian, and European Union consumer protection laws, but Alitalia nonetheless continues its actions, with complicity from travel agencies such as Orbitz and Travelocity.

Alitalia filed a lawsuit against the website 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. See the external links section for more details.

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."

In April, 2006, Alitalia mistakenly entered a $33 (Canadian) fare for round trip business class tickets from Toronto to Larnaca, Cyprus into the GDS system, leading to approximately 509 tickets issued under this fare. Initially Alitalia and the US based booking agencies agreed to honor the fare, but as the issue has escalated, Alitalia has unilaterally cancelled segments and adjusted/cancelled dates of customers trips, as well as unilaterally adjusting the fare rules after the tickets were issued, leading to disconcertion amongst affected customers.

[edit]

Destinations

Template:Further

[edit]

Fleet

Image:Alitalia.md-82.i-danw.arp.jpg The Alitalia fleet consists of the following aircraft (at July 2005):

It also has ATR 72, Embraer ERJ-145 and Embraer ERJ-170. The Embraer aircraft are mainly operated by subsidiary airline Alitalia Express.

In March 2006, Alitalia fleet average age is 11.6 years old.

In September 2004 Alitalia announced plans to acquire four additional Boeing 777-200ERs, three more B767-300ERs and 12 additional Embraer EMB-170s for its Alitalia Express subsidiary, due to be delivered in 2007 and 2008.

[edit]