Alitalia
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This article is about the new Alitalias, CAI and SAI. For the old Alitalia, see Alitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane.
Not to be confused with Aeritalia.
Alitalia – Società Aerea Italiana S.p.A.
Alitalia logo.png
IATA
AZ ICAO
AZA Callsign
ALITALIA
Founded 12 March 1999
(as Trattamenti Termici Solbiate s.r.l.)
29 July 2004
(as Resco Uno s.r.l.)
26 August 2008
(as C.A.I. Compagnia Aerea Italiana s.r.l.)
12 January 2009
(as Alitalia - Compagnia Aerea Italiana S.p.A.)[note 1]
1 January 2015 as "Alitalia-SAI".
Commenced operations 1 January 2015
AOC # I-130
Hubs Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport (Rome)
Secondary hubs
Linate Airport (Milan)
Malpensa Airport (Milan)
Focus cities
Catania-Fontanarossa Airport
Pisa International Airport
Turin Airport
Venice Marco Polo Airport
Frequent-flyer program MilleMiglia
Airport lounge
Club Freccia Alata
Welcome Air One
SkyTeam Elite
Alliance SkyTeam
Subsidiaries
Alitalia CityLiner
Fleet size 118
Destinations 103[1]
Headquarters Fiumicino, Rome, Italy
Key people
Luca Cordero di Montezemolo (Chairman)
Silvano Cassano (CEO)
Revenue Increase €3,594 million (2012)
Operating income Decrease -€119 million (2012)
Net income Decrease -€280 million (2012)
Employees 14,036 (3 March 2014)
Website www.alitalia.com
Alitalia – Società Aerea Italiana (Alitalia – Italian Airline Company), operating as Alitalia, is the flag carrier and national airline of Italy. The company has its head office in Fiumicino, Rome, Italy.[2] Its main hub is Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport, in Rome and two secondary hubs are located in Linate Airport and Milan Malpensa Airport, both in Milan. Other focus airports are Turin Airport and Venice Marco Polo Airport. On 30 September 2014, Air One ceased flight operations and Alitalia inherited some of its focus cities such as Catania-Fontanarossa Airport and Pisa International Airport. Alitalia's subsidiary Alitalia CityLiner's bases are Naples International Airport and Trieste Airport instead of Rome-Fiumicino and Milan-Linate airports.
Alitalia is Italy's biggest airline, and the world's 19th.[3] The name "Alitalia" is an Italian portmanteau of the words ali (wings), and Italia (Italy).[4] In late 2013, facing bankruptcy, the loss of a major fuel supplier, and a possible grounding by Italy's civil aviation authority, the airline announced a €500 million rescue package which includes a €75 million investment by the Italian state-owned postal operator.[5]
Airbus A320-200 in Alitalia livery
An Alitalia Boeing 777-200ER at landing
Alitalia Airbus A320-200
On 1 August 2014, the Abu Dhabi-based UAE national airline Etihad Airways confirmed it had agreed to terms with Alitalia on taking a 49% stake in the Italian airline. This deal was signed on 8 August 2014 and became effective on 1 January 2015.[6][7]
Contents [hide]
1 History
1.1 Creation of Alitalia-CAI
1.2 History under new ownership
1.3 Slogans
2 Airline operations
2.1 Administration
2.2 Finance and load factors
2.3 Major shareholding
3 Destinations
3.1 Codeshare agreements
3.1.1 SkyTeam
4 Fleet
4.1 Special liveries
4.2 Historical fleet
4.2.1 Retired aircraft
5 Service
5.1 MilleMiglia
6 Incidents and accidents
7 See also
8 Notes
9 References
10 External links
History[edit]
Creation of Alitalia-CAI[edit]
In 2008, a group of investors made the "Compagnia Aerea Italiana" (CAI) consortium aimed to buy the bankrupt Alitalia – Linee Aeree Italiane ("old" Alitalia) and to merge these with Air One, another Italian carrier.[8]
On 30 October 2008, CAI offered €1 billion to acquire parts of the bankrupt airline, amidst pilots' and flight crew members' opposition to labour agreements.[9]
On 19 November 2008, CAI's offer was accepted by the bankruptcy administrator of Alitalia with the permission of the Italian government, at the time major shareholder of the bankrupt airline.[10] Alitalia's profitable assets were transferred to CAI on 12 December 2008 after CAI paid €1052 million, consisting of €427 million in cash and the assumption of responsibility for €625 million in Alitalia debt.[11]
A USA diplomatic cable disclosed in 2011 summarised the operation as follows: "Under the guise of a rather quaint (and distinctly un-EU) desire to maintain the Italian-ness of the company, a group of wealthy Berlusconi cronies was enticed into taking over the healthy portions of Alitalia, leaving its debts to the Italian taxpayers. The rules of bankruptcy were changed in the middle of the game to meet the government's needs. Berlusconi pulled this one off, but his involvement probably cost the Italian taxpayers a lot of money."[12]
On 13 January 2009, the "new" Alitalia 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.[13]
The "new" Alitalia is officially a different company, which refused to honour passengers' claims against the old bankrupt Alitalia on this basis.[14] In June 2014, the Abu Dhabi-based UAE national airline Etihad Airways announced it was taking a 49% stake in Alitalia.[6]
The new Alitalia didn't own many of its operating airplanes. Alitalia-LAI instead owned 100% of its airplanes. Almost every plane that CAI had acquired from the old Alitalia was sold or dismissed. Instead, Alitalia-CAI airplanes were leased mostly from Aircraft Purchase Fleet Limited,[15] an Irish company owned by Carlo Toto, the ex owner of the bankrupt[16] Air One which was merged in 2008 to Alitalia-CAI when the new company was founded.
History under new ownership[edit]
In January 2010, Alitalia celebrated its first anniversary since the relaunch. It carried 22 million passengers in its first year of operations.[17] In 2011, 25 million passengers were carried.[18]
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.[19]
On 11 February 2010, Alitalia announced that, starting from March 2010, it would use Air One as a low-fare airline ("Smart Carrier"), with operations based at Milan Malpensa Airport, focused on short-haul leisure routes. It was predicted that the subsidiary would handle 2.4 million passengers by 2012.[20] In 2011, 1.4 million passengers were carried by the subsidiary.[18] Although operations were initially to be concentrated at Milan Malpensa, Air One later operated from Milan-Malpensa, Venice-Marco Polo, Pisa and Catania as of January 2013.
On 12 February 2011, information was released about a possible merger between Alitalia and Meridiana Fly, another Italian carrier.[21] The merger was not effected.
On 23 February 2011, Alitalia and ENAC announced the introduction of a safety card written in braille and characters in 3-D relief, which is the first of its kind.[22]
On 25 January 2012, Alitalia signed memoranda of understanding with two other Italian airlines, Blue Panorama and Wind Jet, and said to have started processes "aimed at achieving integration" with them.[23]
By the end of July 2012, the Italian antitrust authority allowed Alitalia to acquire Wind Jet, but in return Alitalia would have to cede slots on domestic routes. Faced with this, Alitalia cancelled the plans a few days later in August 2012.[24]
On 3 May 2013, in a sting codenamed "Operation Clean Holds", police made 49 arrests at Rome's Fiumicino airport, with another 37 in Italian airports including Bari, Bologna, Milan Linate, Naples, Palermo and Verona. All were Alitalia employees caught on camera and most were charged with aggravated theft and damage.[25] Hidden-camera footage has been released showing employees rifling through, stealing from, and intentionally damaging passengers' baggage belonging to various carriers.[26]
On 1 January 2015, Alitalia-CAI formally passed its operations to Alitalia-SAI, a new entity owned 49% by Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways and 51% owned by the former Italian stakeholders of Alitalia-CAI.
Slogans[edit]
A variety of different slogans are currently being used by Alitalia:
"Alitalia vola con te" (Alitalia flies with you)[27]
"Fatti per volare alto" (Made to fly high)[28]
"Alitalia, al lavoro per te" (Alitalia, working for you)[29]
"Muoviamo chi muove l'Italia" (We move the people who keep Italy going)[30]
"Scegli come volare"(Choose how to fly)
"Orgogliosi di mostrare il meglio del nostro paese appassionatamente"(Proud to show the best of our country with passion)
"The pleasure of flying Made in Italy"[31]
The old Alitalia, since 2005, the year in which the new modernised logo and livery were introduced, also used a mix of slogans:[32]
"Volare, nella tua vita" (Flying, in your life)
"Volare in compagnia dell'Italia" (Fly with Italy)
In 2014, the company adopted a new slogan[33]
"Alitalians do it better"
"Where the journey meets the destination." (International advertisement)
Airline operations[edit]
Administration[edit]
Alitalia hangars in Fiumicino
Alitalia's head office is located in Piazza Almerico da Schio, Pal. RPU – 00054 Fiumicino (RM).[34] The corporate headquarters was designed by AMDL, a Milan-based architecture firm.[35] The chairman of the airline is Roberto Colaninno; the first chief executive officer since the relaunch was Rocco Sabelli. On 28 February 2012, Andrea Ragnetti became the new chief executive officer of the company.[18] On April 2013, he was replaced by Gabriele Del Torchio, former chief executive officer of Ducati.[36]
Compagnia Aerea Italiana (CAI) holds a 75% stake in Alitalia, while Air France-KLM holds the other 25%.[37] On October 2013, the state-owned postal service Poste Italiane announced to buy a 15% Alitalia's stake, by injecting 100 million euros into the company's equity and allowing the following capital increase of 300 million euros.[38][39]
Finance and load factors[edit]
Alitalia Financial and operational results
Year Operating profit (€ millions) Load Factor (%) On-time (%)
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Total Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Average Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Average
2009[40][41] -210 -63 15 -15 -273 51 65 74 70 65 72 72 ND ND 72
2010[42][43][44][45] -125 -4 56 -34 -107 65 71 76 72 71 82 83 ND ND 80
2011[18][46][47][48] -86 17 90 -27 -6 64 72 78 77 73 91 85 86 80 86
2012[49][50][51] -109 -60 50 0 -119 69 73 78 80 75 88 90 84 86 87
2013[52][53] -136 ND 36 ND -50 71 ND 79 ND 75 88 ND 86 ND 87
2014[54] ND × × × ND 72 × × × 72 ND × × × ND
ND = No Data
As of 29 July 2009, Alitalia is the first airline for domestic flights in Italy and, as of 4 October 2010, Alitalia is in second place for international flights to/from Italy.[55][56]
Alitalia was nominated as Europe's most punctual airline in 2010, and as one of the world's five most punctual airlines in 2011.[18]
As of 28 October 2010, Alitalia has 53% of the market share on domestic routes (based on seat capacity).[44]
Major shareholding[edit]
Alitalia's major shareholders on 13 January 2014, prior to completion of an August, 2014 deal with Etihad Airways where that airline was to take a 49% interest as of 1 January 2015.[6]
Shareholder Holding
Intesa Sanpaolo 20.59%
Poste italiane 19.48%
UniCredit 12.99%
Immsi 10.19
Atlantia 7.44%
Air France-KLM 7.08%
Gruppo Riva via Riva Fire S.p.A. 4.28%
Antonio Percassi via Odissea S.r.L. 3.90%
Davide Maccagnani via Macca S.r.l. 3.69%
Pirelli & C. S.p.A. 2.67%
Marcegaglia S.p.A. 0.75%
Achille D'Avanzo via Solido Holding S.p.A. 0.21%
Others 6.73%
Total 100%
[57]
Destinations[edit]
Main article: Alitalia destinations
Alitalia serves 103 destinations (at July 2014). Alitalia's hub is at Rome Fiumicino Airport, and five other Italian airports are focus cities.[58]
Codeshare agreements[edit]
Alitalia and Alitalia CityLiner have codeshare agreements with the following airlines (as of October 2014):[59]
Aeroflot
Aeromexico
airBaltic
Air Berlin[60]
Air Corsica
Air Europa
Air France
Air Serbia
Air Seychelles[61]
Azerbaijan Airlines
Bulgaria Air
China Airlines
China Eastern Airlines
China Southern Airlines
Croatia Airlines
Cyprus Airways
Czech Airlines
Delta Air Lines
Etihad Airways
Etihad Regional
Garuda Indonesia
Gol Transportes Aéreos[62]
Jet Airways[63]
KLM
Korean Air
Kuwait Airways
Luxair
Middle East Airlines
Montenegro Airlines
Niki
Saudia
SriLankan Airlines
TAP Portugal
TAROM
Vietnam Airlines
SkyTeam[edit]
A Boeing 767-300ER, registered as EI-DBP, is seen here in SkyTeam livery, 2010, now retired
Alitalia has been in the SkyTeam alliance since 2009; Alitalia-LAI originally joined in 2001.[64]
Alitalia has since arranged code-share agreements with SkyTeam members, allowing passengers to fly to numerous destinations (with some or all segments operated by airlines other than Alitalia) using a single Alitalia ticket.[65]
In July 2010, Alitalia joined Air France, KLM and Delta's transatlantic Joint Venture, meaning that the profits from flights across the Atlantic are shared between the four airlines.[66]
Fleet[edit]
Alitalia Airbus A319-100
Alitalia Airbus A320-200 in Alitalia.com special livery
Alitalia Airbus A321-100 in historical livery, now stored
Alitalia Airbus A330-200
Alitalia Boeing 777-200ER
For subsidiaries fleet, see Alitalia CityLiner.
As of December 2014, the Alitalia mainline fleet consists of the following aircraft:[67]
Alitalia Mainline Fleet
Aircraft In Service Orders Passengers Notes
J Y+ Y Total
Airbus A319-100 22 — 32 — 90 122 9 aircraft still in old livery
— — 138 138
Airbus A320-200 43 — 34 — 114 148 6 aircraft still in Air One livery;
180 seats aircraft in reconfiguration to 165.
— — 165 165
— — 180 180
Airbus A321-100 11 — 28 — 158 186 2 aircraft still in old livery
— — 200 200
Airbus A330-200 10 3[68] 20 13 222 255 Deliveries 2015
2 — 20 — 263 283 Will be reconfigured from October 2015
Boeing 777-200ER 10 2 30 24 239 293 Deliveries to commence in 2016
Boeing 777-300ER — 3 TBA Deliveries to commence in 2016
Total 98 8[68]
Between 2009 and 2011, Alitalia renewed its fleet with the arrival of 34 new aircraft, while 26 older planes retired. Alitalia mainline has an average fleet age of 8.1 years as of April 2013. The renewal process ended in early 2013.[18]
These new planes are not owned by Alitalia itself, but are leased mostly from Aircraft Purchase Fleet Limited,[15] an Irish company owned by Carlo Toto, the ex owner of the bankrupt Air One which was merged with Alitalia-CAI in 2008. The Alitalia-owned planes could be distinguished by the first part of the aircraft registration code. If the airplane is owned by Alitalia, it will be "I" for Italy. If it is leased, it will be "EI" for Ireland.
With the new strategic plan focused on long haul, in January 2015 has been announced that 7 wide-bodies (that now seems to be 3 A330-200, 2 B777-200ER, 3 B777-300ER, but for the 777s the type and the mix is not yet sure) will join in the fleet starting from May 2015 with a 330-200 in a new livrey. The 777s maybe will come from Etihad or Etihad Partners. It is planned that these new planes will be mostly owned by Alitalia-SAI and will not be leased from the Irish-based Aircraft Purchase Fleet Limited, unlike the Alitalia-CAI airplanes.
All Airbus A320 family aircraft were refitted with new "slim" leather Recaro seats in 2010. Seatback TV screens for entertainment were installed on some aircraft
