Oh the simplicity of it all! Sadly for you chaps the real world doesn't work that way. You can't close the airline down, re-open it with fewer of the old staff in a few weeks and suddenly be profitable. The best of the old staff will already have gone somewhere else. Others will decide they don't want to rejoin the new company. What you'll be left with is a few loyalists and the unemployable, and thats no way to start up an airline. If Alitalia closes down I'd bet on it going the way of Sabena rather than Swissair.

European employment law doesn´t apply here anymore. Alitalia is in administration and the special administrator can fire anybody he pleases, should it come to that.

So Who Cares?
 

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My point entirely. See above thread. Just let it go. Alitalia is a waste of space, a deceased parrot. If it wasn't nailed to the perch by taxpayers euros it would already be pushing up the daisies.

Guys, you seem to forget that closing the company down will cost maybe even more money than keeping it alive. The rescue plan is financed with private funding (except for outstanding debts which will be covered by taxpayer money). If Alitalia folds, it's former employees will cost the italian government enormous amounts of money in unemployment benefits claims. Apart from national pride and the promise of Mr. Berlusconi to save the company this is the main reason why ministers are still talking to the various unions. They are trying to save their own *sses!

Which, surely, is utterly illegal under EU rules. That's my tax money going to prop up dead ducks like Alitalia, and I object to that.

Let the duds go, stop skewing the commercial market with illegal government subsidies. The EU isn't supposed to be a Socialist Eutopia these days. Someone please tell that crook Berlusconi!

Politicians don't care about the long term. Their idea of 'long term' is the next election which is a maximum of 4 years, and far less than that in Italy... If they can spin things towards having their electorate think that they 'saved' Alitalia it will score them big brownie points. As it is 56% of the public think the present government is to blame, see this poll in a major italian newspaper: Testata di repubblica - Repubblica
They will do what is necessary to save Alitalia in the short term. If the pilots and cabin crew reject the new contract, the politicians have the perfect scapegoat. If the rescue plan is accepted by everybody and the 'new' Alitalia fails in a year or so they can say that they did everything in their power to save Alitalia. The pilots and cabin crew unions are partly to blame for the present situation but I would definitely not want to be in their position right now...

Situation at BLQ this morning:

NO AZ flights to anywhere, no AZ a/c on the aprons. Italian public are aware, a TV channel had a crew at the airport to film some of the scenes (not that there was much to see). So as far as the public are concerned, it is over.

Meridiana on the other hand is doing roaring business (for obvious reasons). Looks like they picked up some of the slack from AZ flights being cancelled.

The only politician who cares about AZ is Berlusconi. He was re-elected (for the N-th time) on the promise that he would rescue the airline, and he will not let it fail.

S.

Let AZ got for christs sake. Airline after airline has looked into buying this airline, probably even put a bid in, but the Goverment have turned them down. They are in too much debt to be ev en surviving and if the EU dosnt do something this could possibly be the longest clinger on airline that i have seen.

AZ i read loose £780,000 a day (Sunday times). About time they let go of there 'national' airline and made way for a new one. LH are ready to go.

Some new facts.

Talks to get all Alitalia's unions on board for a job-cutting rescue by Italian investors will continue tomorrow as pilots and crew have not signed up to an initial deal agreed by other unions to avoid bankruptcy.

Raffaele Bonanni, head of CISL (one of the four unions which signed up to the framework deal), said: "We have arrived at a point where something has to be accomplished, otherwise everything will break. If it happened, one of the richest markets in the world of aviation would be dispelled and, above all, we would lose 20,000 jobs." An other union, FILT-CGIL said the conditions were not in place for a full-blown agreement.

Five other labour groups, representing pilots and cabin crew, oppose the rescue plan altogether, fearing huge job and salary cuts.

The government called talks with those groups for Monday evening and Tuesday, hoping to break the deadlock.

Speaking on a television show tonight, Berlusconi stressed the alternative to the rescue proposal was bankruptcy. He said Lufthansa (!) would be the best international partner for a revived Alitalia.

http://estb.msn.com/i/65/388A80FDA9B...F129BC544.Jpeg

Hundreds of angry employees gathered near Berlusconi's office intonating slogans like "Buffoons, we are coming". The son of one of the pilots carried a banner saying "A little money for my dad, a little bread for us".

eu01
 

Apart from employees, who cares? AZA is history. It can't be re-born or revived. The only question is will the death be short or long.
Lufthansa management is too smart to get mixed up with a bunch of baboons like Alitalia.

Berlusconi is involved with this one... it has to stink. The only winners will be his Buddys.

In this day and age it says a lot that some parts of Europe can show Africa how it should be done...

Got to admit it Stinks
 

i worked sn/sr JUST LET AZ DIE and come back bigger and stronger .To many unions in Italy for my kiking

How about: "Anyone wanna swap my dad's Armani uniform for some food for me an me sister???"

I got another question. Is there an employer out there who would seriously consider employing an AZ pilot after this lot? :ugh:

What is all the fuss about?
 

Sounds like a great deal, payed for 7 years for doing nothing....


Under the draft agreement, the 3,200 workers who lose their jobs will receive 80% of their salary for up to seven years. Thousands of others will be found jobs in other companies.

A "special fund for employee income support" is to be set up, which "will be augmented by up to two euros a ticket", according to the draft agreement.

Consortium members are to meet on Thursday to take a final decision on whether to go ahead with their investment, and it seems possible the talks could drag on until then. Were they to fail, more than 100,000 airline passengers would be stranded or left with worthless tickets. An estimated 1 million have reservations that would need to be rebooked.

The draft pact between the main unions and investors was confined to the consortium's industrial plan. The right-wing government's employment minister, Maurizio Sacconi, warned a deal had yet to be struck on terms and conditions for the new Alitalia, but the leader of the moderate CISL trade union federation said agreement on the industrial plan was the "basis for everything else".

Backstory
Alitalia has long been the basket case of the European civil aviation industry, kept alive by generous, subsidies. It last made a profit in 1999. Since then, it has absorbed an estimated €3bn (£2.4bn) of public money, not counting its €1.2bn debts and a special loan of €300m provided this year at the request of Silvio Berlusconi, after he won Italy's general election. The previous, government, had found a buyer in Air France-KLM. But the unions scotched the deal after Berlusconi vowed to preserve its "Italian-ness".


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Surely that honour belongs to Olympic?

Makes no sense
 

With the changes now proposed, I don't see how AZ can operate at a profit, even with the transfer of subsidies to other branches of Government and the travelling public.

This is like pulling teeth. Just let it go already!

The world doesn't need AZ. With the exception probably of a few flights over the pond out of Milan, and possibly Rome, everything else could be hubbed somewhere else and there would be more open competition on domestic routes, allowing a Ryanair Italian equivalent (Non-unionised) to startup. All both directly, and indirectly, to the benefit of the Italian taxpayer/traveller.

Incidentally, why is the Milan/Rome route an AZ monopoly (According to earlier posts)? It was my understanding that EU regulations allow ANY airline domiciled in the EU to operate flights between any EU cities? LH, for instance, operates some UK domestic flights (Some as code shares).