Alitalia

Alitalia
Compagnia Aerea Italiana
IATA
AZ		 ICAO
AZA		 Callsign
ALITALIA
Founded 22 August 2008
Commenced operations 13 January 2009
Hubs Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport
Focus cities
  • Caselle Airport
  • Fontanarossa Airport
  • Linate Airport
  • Malpensa Airport
  • Marco Polo Airport
  • Naples Airport
Frequent-flyer program MilleMiglia
Member lounge
  • Club Freccia Alata
  • Welcome Air One
  • SkyTeam Elite
Alliance SkyTeam
Subsidiaries Air One Smart Carrier
Fleet size 154 (+45 orders)
Destinations 81 (39 countries)
Parent company CAI (75%)
Air France-KLM (25%)
Headquarters Fiumicino, Italy
Key people Roberto Colaninno (Chairman)
Rocco Sabelli (CEO)
Website www.alitalia.com
Boeing 767-300ER in Alitalia livery
The interior of an Alitalia McDonnell Douglas MD-82 (2006)

Alitalia — Compagnia Aerea Italiana S.p.A. (Italian for Alitalia - Italian Air Company), operating as Alitalia, is an Italian airline, which took over the name, the landing rights, many planes and some other assets from the liquidation process of the old Alitalia — Linee Aeree Italiane and the entire Air One. The company has its head office in Fiumicino, Italy.[1][2] Its main hub is Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport, Rome.

Headquartered in Rome, it operates services to 28 domestic and 53 international destinations in 38 countries across Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe. Alitalia is the world's 19th largest passenger airline by fleet size. Its fleet operates under four separate Air Operator Certificates due to the CAI merger: Alitalia-CAI (Alitalia) [IATA Code AZ], CAI-First (Alitalia Express) [IATA Code XM], Air One [IATA Code AP] and CAI-second (Volare Airlines) [IATA Code VE].

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

Contents

History

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.[3]

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.[4]

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.[5]

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.[6]

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.[7]

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".[8]

On 18 May 2010, Alitalia crews once again decided to strike on the 18 June with a 24 hour strike.[9] This strike, like the other one has been "put off" to a later date - July 19 at the earliest.[10] This will have been the second strike since start-up in January 2009.

SkyTeam

The new Alitalia inherited Alitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane's membership of the Skyteam alliance. Alitalia-LAI originally joined in 2001.[11]

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 betwen the four airlines.[12]

MilleMiglia

The airline's frequent-flyer program is named "MilleMiglia" (thousand miles), and is part of the SkyTeam alliance program, 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.[13]

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% lower than major carriers like Air France, British Airways and Lufthansa who all varied from 70-75%.

Second quarter results show Alitalia with an increase in load factors rising from 51% to 65%, a 14% increase.[14]

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.[15]

On 29 July 2009, Alitalia released financial report for their first 6 months of operations.[16] Alitalia is the largest domestic airline in Italy, and the third airline for international flights from/to Italy.[17]

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.[18]

2010

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

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%, 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.[19][20]

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.[21]

Destinations

Alitalia serves 81 destinations, 28 domestic and 53 international, in 38 countries (at July 2010).[22] It also has numerous code-share agreements.

Fleet

The Alitalia fleet (including all 4 AOC's) consists of the following aircraft (as of 24 July 2010):[23][24]

Alitalia Fleet
Aircraft In Fleet Orders Options Passengers Notes Livery
Business Economy Total AZ XM AP CT Special SkyTeam
Airbus A319-100 12 0 0 var. var. 138° 12 0 0 0 0 0
Airbus A320-200 55 23 25 var.
0		 var.
180		 165°
180		 Deliveries: 2009-2013 27
0		 0 22
5		 0 1
0		 0
Airbus A321-100 23 0 0 var. var. 200° 23 0 0 0 0 0
Airbus A330-200 4 10 8 20
28		 255
202*		 275
230		 Deliveries: June 2010-2013 0
2		 0 2
0		 0 0 0
Airbus A350-800 0 12 12 TBA 287 Deliveries: 2014-2018 0 0 0 0 0 0
Boeing 737-400 9 0 0 0 162 162 Phasing out by: 2010
Replacement aircraft: Airbus A320		 0 0 9 0 0 0
Boeing 767-300ER 6 0 0 20 212 232 Replacement aircraft: Airbus A330 5 0 0 0 0 1
Boeing 777-200ER 10 0 0 42 249 291 4 leased from GECAS 10 0 0 0 0 0
Bombardier CRJ-900 10 0 0 0 90 90 0 0 0 10 0 0
Embraer E-170 6 0 0 var. var. 72 0 6 0 0 0 0
McDonnell Douglas MD-82 19 0 0 0
var.		 164
var.		 164
141		 Phasing out by: 2013
Replacement aircraft: Airbus A320		 11
8		 0 0 0 0 0
Total 154 45 45 Last updated: 24 July 2010 98 6 38 10 1 1

*Of which 21 are Premium Economy seats
°Considering all-economy configuration

Alitalia is considering the Russian regional Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft, with a possible order for 15, which would be a huge boost for Russia's Civil Aviation manufacterers. This has not been confirmed nor denied by Alitalia or Suhkoi.

Club Magnifica enhancement

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

The upgrade is initially only fully available on selected routes for North America, in parts on other routes.

The new Magnifica Class seat on Alitalia's new Airbus A330-200 aircraft, which will also be installed in the future on the B777's: Click here

Slogans

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

The old Alitalia, since 2005, year in which the new modernised logo was introduced, used a mix of:[32]

Incidents and accidents

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

References

  1. ↑ "Copyright." Alitalia. Retrieved on 9 June 2010.
  2. ↑ "Registred Office." Alitalia. Retrieved on 27 June 2010.
  3. ↑ CAI - integration of Alitalia and Air One
  4. ↑ The problems of the old Alitalia LAI + CAI's offers
  5. ↑ "Air France-KLM buys 25% of Alitalia". Financial Times. 12/01/09. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/776c5c2c-e0ce-11dd-b0e8-000077b07658.html. 
  6. ↑ Alitalia passengers 2009
  7. ↑ Alitalia crew go on 4 hour strike over wages
  8. ↑ Air One plans from Milan Malpensa, 3 million pax by 2012
  9. ↑ Alitalia crew staff's strike on 18th of June
  10. ↑ Italy section, Alitalia strike has been moved to 19th July
  11. ↑ Alitalia originally joined SkyTeam in 2001
  12. ↑ Alitalia join's Air Frane-KLM and Delta's Transatlantic Joint Venture
  13. ↑ Alitalia's Mille Miglia program
  14. ↑ Alitalia Financial Report and quarterly load factors
  15. ↑ Alitalia losses for 1st and 2nd trimester 2009
  16. ↑ Alitalia Press Release Finance Report (first 6 months)
  17. ↑ Alitalia - Top domestic airline, third internationally
  18. ↑ Alitalia expects 270mln loss for 2009
  19. ↑ Alitalia 1st Q 2010 results
  20. ↑ Alitalia is the most punctual airline in Europe
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Alitalia's mid-2010 press release
  22. ↑ Alitalia Destinations Map
  23. ↑ Alitalia Fleet
  24. ↑ Air One Fleet
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 An Alitalia A320 has been painted into a special livery with the slogan "Muoviamo chi muove l'Italia"
  26. ↑ The "PEOPLE" advertisements use the slogan "Voliamo dalla stessa parte"
  27. ↑ The "Comfort" and "Sapori" ads use the slogan "Alitalia fa volare l'Italia"
  28. ↑ The Alitalia "Per tutti è Alitalia" ad uses the slogan "Alitalia vola con te"
  29. ↑ Slogan: Fatti per volare alto
  30. ↑ Alitalia displays the slogan "Alitalia, al lavoro per te" at its Hub, Rome Fiumicino Airport
  31. ↑ Alitalia's homepage features the slogan "The pleasure of flying Made in Italy"
  32. ↑ The slogans which were used by Alitalia-LAI in its last years
  33. ↑ Alitalia jet damages plastic bumper
  34. ↑ Alitalia flight makes emergency landing due to bomb threat
  35. ↑ Plane Makes Emergency Landing At Logan

External links