Home > Alitalia

1 History

Alitalia was founded in 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.

Alitalia Airbus A321.

By the 1990s, Alitalia was carrying nearly 25 million passengers annually. Today, Alitalia operates out of two hubs in Italy, at Rome Fiumicino and Milan Malpensa airports, serving 200 destinations in 24 countries worldwide.

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. Talks went on with unions for pay cuts and layoffs, in an attempt to keep the company out of bankruptcy and possibly liquidation. [1] On September 24th, the company announced that it had reached an agreement with unions allowing access to a €400 million loan from the Italian government. While more money may be needed in early 20052005 is a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). It has been designated: The World Year of Physics The International Year of Microcredit The International Year for Sport and Physical Education The United States Year of Foreign, the airline thus seems to have avoided the threat of bankruptcy. [2]

2 Other facts of interest

• The Alitalia fleet comprises 193 aircrafts (as of 23/09/2004), a mixture of ATR 72The ATR 72 is a twin-turboprop short-haul regional airliner built in France by the ATR company (Avions de Transport Regional). The airplane seats up to 74 passengers and is operated by a 2 person crew. History The ATR 72 is a lengthened version (by 4., Embraer 145, Embraer 170The EMBRAER E-Jets are a series of twin-engine jet airliners, produced in Brazil. Most components are common between the aircraft, differing primarily in fuselage length, wingspan, and maximum take-off weight. The EMBRAER 170 and 175 compete with aircraft, Airbus A319, A320 and A321The Airbus A320 is a short to medium range commercial passenger aircraft manufactured by Airbus Industrie. It is the best-selling passenger aircraft in the world (at 2003) and was the first airliner with a digital fly-by-wire flight control system, where, McDonnell Douglas MD-80The Douglas DC-9 is a twin-engined jet airliner, first manufactured in 1965 and, in much modified form and under a succession of different names, still in production today as the Boeing 717. MD-88 of Iberia''. Douglas launched the DC-9 development project, Boeing 767The Boeing 767 is a commercial passenger airplane manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The Boeing 767, which was introduced in about the same time period as the 757, has a seat-to-aisle ratio in economy class of 3. 5 seats per aisle, making for qu, McDonnell Douglas MD-11The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 is a longer version of the DC-10 with winglets (upturned wingtips) and a glass cockpit. Production ceased after McDonnell-Douglas was acquired by Boeing. Until the end of production in February 2001, the MD-11 was assembled at, Boeing 777.
• To date, six Alitalia flights have been hijacked (see Aviation Safety Network report for Alitalia).
• To date, only one aircraft incident has been reported involving Alitalia planes (see Aviation Safety Network report for Alitalia).
• Alitalia operates three main hubs. They are: Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport in Fiumicino, Italy, Malpensa International Airport in Milan, Italy, and Linate Airport in Milan, Italy.
• Pope John Paul II charters Alitalia jets on most of his international flights.