groundhand although I fully agree with you that Alitalia is anything but efficient at controlling costs (although most of the problems that it has now are caused directly or indirectly by politics) ground handling is the exception. I would actually say that other airlines have been throwing money away in the ground handling sector. I mean look at BA, they had their own staff in both Milan Linate and Milan Malpensa (SEA Handling handled the ramp with a BA supervisor), after a few years they realised that it just costed too much and so some of their staff transferred to Globeground Italia. However, Globeground Italia did not take them all as they were far too many. SEA Handling went on providing ramp services while Globeground Italia did the check in and BA did ramp supervision. Then BA transferred everything (apart ramp supervision) to ATA Handling. Now obviously BA are outsourcing their staff everywhere, but they are doing this far too late. What's the point of having your staff for 1 or 2 flights a day?