The rise and fall of Alitalia

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The rise and fall of Alitalia

#1 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Mon Aug 30, 2021 9:07 am

A sad, but predictable, and all to common outcome...
Italy's storied flag carrier has announced it will no longer issue tickets, triggering a countdown of just a few weeks until its familiar red and green livery vanishes from our skies for good.
The nationally owned airline is to be replaced in October by ITA, a smaller company with a different logo, but the service which once carried Italian pride, style and cuisine -- not to mention the Pope -- to all corners of the planet will be long gone.

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While the demise of Alitalia might bring a sense of loss for many Italians, it's unlikely to come as a surprise. The airline has spent the past few decades teetering on the brink of collapse as authorities scrambled to strike lifeline alliances with investors and other global carriers.

"Each time it succeeded in being rescued, albeit with the only result of further prolonging its agony", says Giovanni Orsina, director of the School of Government at Rome-based LUISS University.

Founded 74 years ago, Alitalia was once known by Italians as "freccia alata" -- aka the "winged arrow" in honor of speed -- will retire for good. Its aircraft's tails bore the popular logo of a capital 'A' shaped like the wing of an aircraft and colored like the Italian flag.

Aside from its cuisine and car brands, it was perhaps one of Italy's most recognized symbols overseas.

When Italian families returned home from a faraway trip and set foot inside an Alitalia aircraft, with the stewardess finally greeting them with a warm "buongiorno" and serving steaming spaghetti with tomato sauce and cotoletta alla Milanese for lunch, it was like stepping back home. To kill time passengers could read Italian national newspapers.

Alitalia took pride in Italian style and food. Flight attendants in the 1950s were dressed in elegant uniforms designed by couture house Sorelle Fontana. In later years an impressive roster including Delia Biagiotti, Alberto Fabiani, Renato Balestra and even Giorgio Armani created stylish outfits and comfortable seats.

The hot Italian cuisine served on board at times made the company a favorite among international travelers. The duty free sold luxury Italian perfumes, watches, scarves and ties. Back in more unenlightened times, husbands returning from a long-haul flight would bring their wives the latest boutique item.

The airline had the blessing of religious authorities too. From 1964 it regularly served as the Pope's official airline, with the size of the plane varying based on the distance being flown. The aircraft carrying the Pope is usually referred to as "Shepherd One" -- the papal equivalent of Air Force One -- and is given the flight number AZ4000.

It wasn't all glamor and prestige for Alitalia. Over the past 30 years Italy's government has pumped billions of euros into the airline in an attempt to save it from extinction and keep its employees in jobs.

But, says Orsina, the airline simply couldn't cope with global competition and adapt to the changes in the aviation sector.

"The fall of Alitalia is the ultimate symbol of Italy's historical, inbred difficulty in dealing with globalization and rising competition," he tells CNN. "The travel industry has undergone a revolution while Alitalia was stuck in a stalemate, stifled by corporations, lobbies, trade unions and political pressures to keep it afloat despite its woes and the reality of an evolving sector."
Alitalia showed little resilience, says Orsina. It just couldn't keep up with the arrival of efficient low-cost carriers, operating with smaller crews and offering more competitive fares, newer aircraft and a wider list of global destinations.

The aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, which heavily impacted the aviation industry, dealt a heavy blow to Alitalia, but the lethal strike has likely been the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Authorities kept resuscitating it, believing that Alitalia just couldn't fail, but there are limits and we've reached the bottom," says Orsina. "It's like curing a terminal patient. You can try to make him feel less pain for a while, but not forever. That is therapeutic obstinacy."

Alitalia's golden age started in the 1950s when post-World War II reconstruction triggered an economic boom in Italy and families could finally afford to fly to distant locations.
Even though Italy has always been a popular tourist destination Alitalia's profits kept falling due to rising competition, debts piled up and bankruptcy followed. The company passed several times into extraordinary administration. Numerous rescue missions were mounted without long term success.

Italy was a vanquished country recovering from the wounds of the Second World War and Alitalia came to represent collective hope and national identity," says aerospace industry expert Gregory Alegi."It conveyed a sense of belonging."

As the jet age arrived, the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome helped spread the fame of Alitalia worldwide -- the company even created a poster showing a javelin thrower with an airplane flying over his head.

"Having a state carrier was a must for Italy, an icon of national pride and patriotism," says Orsina. "Italy couldn't afford not to have one, it was like having the police and carabinieri corps. Alitalia was an indispensable accessory of the state because it was like having a piece of flying Italy around the world", says Orsina.

Alitalia's troubles started in the 1990s when European deregulation made air traffic more competitive and Italian railways were strengthened, according to aerospace expert Alegi.

The situation worsened when authorities tried to privatize Alitalia, triggering an infinite quest for carrier partners and businessmen willing to support the state in tackling the challenges of a free market. All partnerships failed, while trade unions fought against layoff plans.

And while Alitalia was loved as a symbol, it was often loathed by its passengers.

The endless crisis eventually led to a decline in service quality, says Orsina, with personnel strikes, delayed or canceled flights and fewer long-haul trips. Italians started to become frustrated.
According to recent surveys the majority of them believe the state should have long stopped funding the company with taxpayers' money.

Rosetta Scrugli, a former Alitalia passenger who regularly flew to Asia for work, complains that union protests have made her lose important meetings overseas.

"The flight was either late, or often even canceled," she says. "I spent hours waiting at the terminal, and my luggage was lost several times. It's nice to fly a national carrier if things run smoothly, otherwise it can be hell. Patriotism has nothing to do with it, efficiency is key".

Scrugli also complained that Alitalia used to fly to Asia via Milan, with no direct flights from Rome.

While little is yet known about the airline's anointed successor, according to Alegi, there are hopes ITA will succeed where Alitalia has failed.

But since it will be state-owned, at least in the short-term, no one is expecting it to soar just yet.

That hasn't clouded nostalgia felt by retired pilots, captains and air attendants for the good old days, when salaries were high and the job came with benefits and prestige.
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/ ... index.html
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Re: The rise and fall of Alitalia

#2 Post by tango15 » Mon Aug 30, 2021 9:13 am

Flew with them a few times, but was never impressed. The MO of the cabin crew seemed to be to throw the comestibles at the hapless pax, collect them in as soon as possible afterwards and then in the days when you could, go down the back of the aircraft for a smoke. Likewise Olympic, who are of course no longer with us. Maybe there is a common denominator there?
Alitalia was always known to me as All Little Italians Trying And Losing In Aviation.

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Re: The rise and fall of Alitalia

#3 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Mon Aug 30, 2021 9:13 am

Though you remain
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You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."

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Re: The rise and fall of Alitalia

#4 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Mon Aug 30, 2021 9:19 am

I used them a couple of times when I was working on a project in Milan... I wasn't much taken with the airline.
Alitalia - Always Late In Take-off And Late In Arrival.
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Re: The rise and fall of Alitalia

#5 Post by Undried Plum » Mon Aug 30, 2021 9:29 am

I flew with them very regularly for a couple of years of the construction of the Tunisia-Sicily gas pipelines. They were crap. Just crap. Even worse than BA. Much worse, actually.

The ground customer service people were just awful. The cabin crew slightly better, but also crap.

One of very few times I was frightened on an airline flight was a night-time flapless landing in torrential rain at Milano. Problemo Idraulico, apparently. For a moment on slam-down I did wonder whether the brakes were powered by the same hydraulics as the flaps. I damn nearly joined the rest of the pax who were doing that chest-crossing routine.

Of five times I've lost checked-in baggage in my lifetime, three were Alitalia. Cazzo.

I, for one, will not miss that airline.


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Re: The rise and fall of Alitalia

#6 Post by Pontius Navigator » Mon Aug 30, 2021 10:48 am

All I remember is the fare. The company was happy to pay £450 for a flexible fare to Venice. I bought Mrs PN an Apex, same flight, for £154. Pointed out to the Adminers that they were paying a £300 insurance premium against the remote possibility of my cancelling the flight. Ticket duly swapped.

OTOH I still remember an Air France flight from Nice. Flight time just qualified for Business. I was sitting up front, door open, sun streaming in, cattle pax filing slowly passed when this immaculate hostie gave me my first glass of champagne.

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Re: The rise and fall of Alitalia

#7 Post by ian16th » Mon Aug 30, 2021 11:33 am

.........and then there was that special place, Aeroporto Linate with its own flavour of Italian chaos. That even infected the local staff of BA!
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Re: The rise and fall of Alitalia

#8 Post by Rwy in Sight » Mon Aug 30, 2021 1:37 pm

Back in mid 2008 when the financial crisis wasn't yet too evident, I was waiting and waiting for my checked luggage in Heathrow having arrived from Athens on an Olympic Airways flight with a handling agent Alitalia. I thought about complaining then again I realized the two most difficult airlines in Europe from a pax perspective needed to cooperate. I didn't bother.

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Re: The rise and fall of Alitalia

#9 Post by Woody » Mon Aug 30, 2021 2:53 pm

Never had any dealings with them, but Iberia( Incompetent, but everyone really isn’t arsed) X(
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Re: The rise and fall of Alitalia

#10 Post by Rwy in Sight » Mon Aug 30, 2021 9:34 pm

I should say OA (the state owned) was a hit and miss experience. One could have an excellent cabin crew (pax service wise) or have a team of bored and indifferent cabin crew members making the flight completely miserable.

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Re: The rise and fall of Alitalia

#11 Post by OFSO » Thu Sep 09, 2021 4:11 pm

Sitting in the cockpit of an Alitalia Airbus temporarily moored at Milano on a flight from FFaM to Rome, enjoying cocktails with the crew - all Alitalia flights had to stop there while the PAX were herded into Duty Free - I saw a technician remove something from the panel and depart down the air stairs. He came back with a very similar unit which the jovial PIC, in answer to my question, told me was a replacement 'borrowed' from the aircraft parked alongside as his device had ceased to function. Plugged it in, grumbling passengers refitted in their seats, and off we went to Leonardo da Vinci.

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Re: The rise and fall of Alitalia

#12 Post by reddo » Sun Sep 12, 2021 10:58 am

I've flown Alitalia many times. They managed to get me from Linate/Roma to Heathrow and vice versa a few times successfully. Tired is probably the best description. The aircraft and the interior, definitely seen better days. The staff were pleasant enough but you did get the impression that they knew they were on borrowed time. Most of the Airbus fleet was leased.

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Re: The rise and fall of Alitalia

#13 Post by PHXPhlyer » Fri Oct 15, 2021 8:22 pm

Italy reveals its new national airline

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/ita- ... index.html

(CNN) — They've long dominated the food and fashion worlds, this year they've dominated sports, and now they're aiming for the skies.
Italy's new national airline, ITA Airways, launched on Friday with a promise to bring pride back to its national flag carrier, after Alitalia, Italy's legacy airline, went bankrupt and ceased operations a day earlier.
Executives unveiled plans for the new network, airplanes, staffing and livery at a press conference livestreamed from Rome.
The first thing to know: everything will be centopercento italiano.
The new ITA Airways planes will be colored sky-blue, with staff wearing uniforms by top Italian designers.
Interiors and airport lounges will be dressed by high-class Italian firms, and even the cars and minibuses used to move around the grounds will be Italian.
"We have been born as a new Italian brand, and we have chosen to work only with Italian companies," said Alfredo Altavilla, president of ITA Airways.
Riding high on sporting triumph
The sky-blue livery, complete with green, red and white tricolore stripes of the Italian flag on the tail and on the engines, is a homage to the Azzurri, Italy's national sports teams, who wear sky blue ("azzurro") strips during competitions.
The Azzurri have, of course, done phenomenally well this year, with the soccer team winning the UEFA European championships and 40 medals at the Tokyo Summer Olympics. Italian Matteo Berrettini was the runner up in the Wimbledon tennis final.
That, according to Altavilla, is the positive energy ITA wants to bring to the skies after the failure of Alitalia.
"Today is the first day of a history that has yet to be written," he said.
"The new branding and the new livery of our planes are a symbol of that change, of the start of a new adventure."

In response to CNN's question about staff uniforms, Chief Marketing Officer Giovanni Perosino said that although nothing has been announced yet, the airline is in talks with "a very important Italian brand" about the possibility of designing them.
"We want to give our clients an Italian experience, and when you think of contemporary Italy, it's rich and complex," he said.
"So our dream is to partner with companies from various disciplines, from the food to the styling of the aircraft, to the uniforms to the furniture in the lounges. Our vision is to use globally important Italian brands. It's our wish, but we're already talking with big brands."
In the meantime, they will keep using the Alitalia uniforms and livery, although they expect the planes to start being repainted within the first few months. The decision is partly to save money, he said.

The news that the company would keep its original name of ITA Airways surprised many who assumed it would want to keep the Alitalia brand going. In documents filed to the US Department of Transport to request permission to fly there, it admitted plans to acquire the Alitalia brand name.
And the night before the airline launch, it was announced that it had bought the Alitalia name for €90 million ($104 million), leading many to speculate that the new airline would, essentially, be the old one.
However, Francavilla said there had never been any question of branding the airline as Alitalia.
"In my head it's always been ITA Airways," he said.
"But we were always very clear not just that we wanted to buy the Alitalia brand, but that we needed to. Not least for marketing reasons -- the Italian brand couldn't belong to anyone else except the national flag carrier."
A more efficient fleet
Alitalia was drowning in debt for years before the pandemic, but Francavilla said that the future is bright for ITA, calling the airline "right-sized" both in terms of fleet, staffing and routing.
It's plan is to operate a fleet of new Airbuses, which are both more efficient and less damaging to the environment.
The first new jets will enter the fleet in early 2022, and by late 2025, it says that 70% of the fleet will be new-generation aircraft.
It plans to start with 52, and increase to 105 by 2025.

Incentivizing smiles
But Francavilla said the biggest difference is set to be the service onboard.
"On your first flight, I hope you'll find a smile," he said. That wasn't always a given from Alitalia's beleaguered staff, but ITA has found a novel way to invigorate workers: every single employee will have a part of their salary linked not only to the company profits, but also to customer satisfaction.
"It aligns the interests of the staff with the clients," he said.
ITA already has a loyalty program, Volare, and it plans to join one of the major alliances -- though Francavilla would not be drawn on which one was favored, saying all offers were being valued.
No more 'battery chicken farms'
Alitalia folded on October 14 after years of financial woes.

Starting an airline in a pandemic is no mean feat, especially with the sad history that has gone before it. ITA has unveiled an ad for the Italian public, telling them that things ending badly -- whether in love, sport or aviation -- shouldn't stop people from trying again.
Francavilla says although the airline will be entering an airspace already crowded with low-cost carriers, he wasn't worried about competition. "We are running different businesses. I fly people and they fly battery chicken farms," he said.
He signaled that he would be fighting the subsidies paid by regional authorities to tempt lowcost carriers to their airports.
"All I'm saying is that I want a level playing field -- I don't want to run a race starting three minutes after the others."
And it's good news for Americans looking for some dolce vita in the skies -- ITA is focusing on the north American market, said Emiliana Limosano, in charge of the commercial side, having decided it is taking off fastest post-pandemic. Rome to New York flights start November 4.

PP

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Re: The rise and fall of Alitalia

#14 Post by 1DC » Fri Oct 15, 2021 10:08 pm

Read a book a long time ago about crazy pilots and would you fly with them if you knew. Reference the Alitalia experience it told about a senior Captain taxiing? out at Rome for New York with a full aircraft when he was told that his daughter who he was taking with him was denied boarding because the aircraft was full. Apparently he stopped the aircraft on the taxi way, shut it down, and released the emergency escape chute and left and went home. It went on to say that the unions were so powerful that he kept his job because his daughter would have been home for the weekend on her own and therefore the company had been unreasonable.

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Re: The rise and fall of Alitalia

#15 Post by ExSp33db1rd » Sun Oct 17, 2021 4:31 am

..............apparently he stopped the aircraft on the taxi way, shut it down, and released the emergency escape chute and left and went home............
How about the BOAC Captain, one of the North Atlantic Barons of course, who delayed the then Flagship service, the 9.00 pm Stratocruiser "Monarch" service to New York whilst he went home to collect another pair of uniform trousers. Even Captains found buying and running a car financially challenging in those days, and he refused to travel to Richmond on the bus wearing his uniform, so had arranged a locker at the airport to keep his uniform in, and arrived that night to find that some had pinched his trousers ! Rosters said "No problem, we'll call the standby, just go home." NO WAY is anyone else going to fly MY service tonight he said, I'll be as quick as I can, and then caught a bus home, returning later to fly the now delayed service to New York. The roster staff went along with it, such was the power of the Captain in those days. That hit the London Evening Standard, as it was then, next day. Captain Delays Passengers Whilst He Goes Home To Change His Trousers, was the headline. Try it now ?

Yes, I do know his name and subsequently flew with him as the crew navigator, but didn't mention that incident ! Nevertheless he chastised me when talking to the co-pilot - We DO NOT use Christian names on the flight deck, MR XXXXXXXXX.

Happy (?) Days ?

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Re: The rise and fall of Alitalia

#16 Post by 1DC » Sun Oct 17, 2021 9:22 am

Another story I remember from this book was about a PSA?Captain flying from San Diego to San Francisco when told that they didn't have any food for the crew landed at an airport along the route and stopped for two hours while he took all the crew for lunch. Unfortunately I can't remember the title of the book and it must be about 40 years ago.

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Re: The rise and fall of Alitalia

#17 Post by ExSp33db1rd » Mon Oct 18, 2021 8:05 am

For reasons I now forget it was sometimes possible on arrival at a "slip" station to order the crew meals for the next sector. Another of our "Barons" now flying a 747 from Tokyo to Anchorage, where they disembarked, ordered his crew meal for the next day's sector to London, he chose not to choose from the offered selection but asked for Roast Beef sandwiches on Rye bread. The following day, after start up and push back he enquired of fhe cabin crew what crew meal selections had been loaded, and learned that his sandwiches were not on board. A few minutes later the Tower enquired of the station manager as to why the aircraft was still on the apron and not requesting taxi clearance ? The S.M returned to the aircraft and plugged in his intercom and asked the crew what the problem was ? My Roast Beef sandwiches have not been loaded, said the Captain. No, said the S.M., that is not a routine crew meal selection. Never mind that replied the Capt. my request was accepted yesterday and I'm not leaving until they are loaded. He got them, some 30 minutes later.

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Re: The rise and fall of Alitalia

#18 Post by PHXPhlyer » Fri Oct 22, 2021 8:18 pm

Italian flight attendants strip off to protest working conditions Little has changed for passengers


https://dynaimage.cdn.cnn.com/cnn/q_aut ... 0-2021.jpg

CNN) — Italy's new national airline, ITA Airways, took to the skies last week, but all is not well on the ground of Italian aviation.
Former Alitalia flight attendants protested this week against job losses and pay cuts in a particularly Italian way -- by taking their clothes off.
At the Campidoglio -- the center of power in Rome for around 2,000 years and whose main square was redesigned by Michelangelo -- about 50 female former flight attendants turned up in their Alitalia uniforms, then removed them to stand in their underwear, chanting "We are Alitalia."
Theirs was a demonstration to protest not only against their job losses, but also against the contracts awarded to those who have been retained by ITA Airways.
Union complaints: Pay cuts, loss of seniority
Trade unions say that those who have stayed are being paid less.
One ITA Airways flight attendant told CNN that as well as taking a pay cut, they have lost seniority, and are no longer told far in advance where and when they will be working.
ITA President Alfredo Altavilla has called previously called threats of strike action "a thing of national shame."
He says that airline staff agreed to the current working conditions and has reportedly compared their complaints to a driver looking in the rear view mirror.
"Bargaining over contracts is more than finished. They are all on board, and they have signed the contract that we sent them," Altavilla told Il Fatto Quotidiano earlier this month.

Of Alitalia's 10,500 staff, only 2,800 have been employed by ITA.
The new airline has retained 52 of Alitalia's 110 planes, according to Reuters. However, it has announced plans for an entirely new fleet of Airbuses, as well as a chic new livery and Italian-made products from the crew uniforms to the lounge furniture.

For passengers traveling right now, however, little has changed. The new ITA livery -- sky blue, to represent Italy's national sports teams -- will be phased in gradually, starting within the next few months, Altavilla announced last week.
And the new uniforms, fixtures and fittings are a work in progress, with the airline in top secret talks with major brands, he said.
Top image: Former Alitalia's flight attendants stage a protest in Rome in this image taken from a video. (Federico Mariani/USB video via AP)

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Re: The rise and fall of Alitalia

#19 Post by tango15 » Fri Oct 22, 2021 8:48 pm

Mention of the poor standards at Olympic (Onassis Loves Your Money Preferably In Cash), reminds me that their cabin staff had uniforms designed by Pierre Cardin. I knew a 747 captain who told me that the SYD trip with Olympic would take about 10 days, and he always took his golf clubs with him.

ATI might well end up the same way as Alitalia if they start spending too much time and money fretting about designer crew wear...

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Re: The rise and fall of Alitalia

#20 Post by Undried Plum » Sat Oct 23, 2021 1:32 am

PHXPhlyer wrote:
Fri Oct 22, 2021 8:18 pm
about 50 female former flight attendants turned up in their Alitalia uniforms, then removed them to stand in their underwear, chanting "We are Alitalia."

Top image: Former Alitalia's flight attendants stage a protest in Rome in this image taken from a video. (Federico Mariani/USB video via AP)

WOPS
Wear only panties.

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