Alitalia (Linee Aeree Italiane) (IATA: AZ, ICAO: AZA, and Callsign: Alitalia) 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.

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.

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 founding 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.

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).

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 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.

Destinations

see full article: Alitalia destinations.

Fleet

The Alitalia fleet consists of the following aircraft (at July 2005):

• 12 Airbus A319-100
• 11 Airbus A320-200
• 23 Airbus A321-100
• 2 Boeing 747-200
• 13 Boeing 767-300
• 10 Boeing 777-200
• 2 McDonnell Douglas MD-11
• 76 McDonnell Douglas MD-82

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

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.

See also

• MilleMiglia

External links

• Alitalia
• Alitalia Fleet Detail
• Alitalia Passenger Opinions
• Alitalia UK
• Alitalia IE