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Alitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane is the national Italian airline company, part of the Alitalia Group.
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.
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] (http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1305343,00.html) 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 2005, the airline thus seems to have avoided the threat of bankruptcy. [2] (http://www.thedeal.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=TheDeal/TDDArticle/TDStandardArticle&c=TDDArticle&cid=1095965784993)
Other facts of interest
- The Alitalia fleet comprises 193 aircrafts (as of 23/09/2004), a mixture of ATR 72, Embraer 145, Embraer 170, Airbus A319, A320 and A321, McDonnell Douglas MD-80, Boeing 767, McDonnell Douglas MD-11, Boeing 777.
- To date, six Alitalia flights have been hijacked (see Aviation Safety Network report for Alitalia (http://www.aviation-safety.net/database/airline.php?var=424)).
- To date, only one aircraft incident has been reported involving Alitalia planes (see Aviation Safety Network report for Alitalia (http://aviation-safety.net/database/operator/AZA.shtml)).
- 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.
IATA Code
Alitalia uses the IATA designator code AZ.
Alitalia crashed in the mid 90's in Zurich, killing all passengers of a half-filled MD-80
ICAO Code
Alitalia uses the ICAO designator code AZA.
External links
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