Alitalia

[flyboy2]

Alitalia cancels 44 flights
22/01/2006 15:10 PM

Rome - Alitalia cancelled 44 flights on Sunday because of continued labour unrest, the second day in a row Italy's struggling national carrier has had to scrap flights because of wildcat walkouts.
Italy's main unions, meanwhile, met at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport to discuss whether to proceed with a threatened full-day strike starting on Monday - the second in a week.

Italian news agencies ANSA and Apcom said the walkout was cancelled pending the outcome of a meeting with the government scheduled for Wednesday.
Alitalia said in a statement that as of Sunday morning it had to cancel 44 out of 130 flights scheduled across its network for Sunday, saying "illegal union initiatives" were to blame. On Saturday it scrapped 66 flights.

Ground crews, including baggage handlers and airplane maintenance workers, had refused to work on Saturday and ground crews were continuing to cause the problems, Alitalia said.
Union officials have said the protests stemmed from a breakdown in negotiations with the government.

Workers are protesting restructuring plans at the loss-making airline, which have included cutting jobs and spinning off the airline's flight unit from its less profitable ground services business.

On Thursday, Alitalia's employees went on a one-day strike.

http://www.fin24.co.za/articles/default/display_article.asp?Nav=ns&ArticleID=1518-1783_1867314

[tangocharlie]

Can anyone supply any figures reference strikes involving Italian aviation, and whether it compares with other European countries?

[Baywatcher]

About time this useless loss making airline was folded!

[Rollingthunder]

Going into their 6th day of strikes. 225 flights cancelled so far. Share prices dropped 9% today (Monday).

[SOPS]

Just caught the tail end of a story on CNN saying Alitalia is/has/is trying to buy Volare, to get into Low Cost market. Anyone know anything??

[cartmanfly]

they should just rebrand their pencil jets 'Alitalia Connect' seems to be the fashion at the minute :\

[jollyikarus]

Good question......where would 'AliMafia' get the money from, seeing that they are practically broke, anyway????
Or is LH taking over? After all, LH has a tendency to buy broke companies....
Probably just another rumour.

Cheers,

Ikarus :-)

[pug munter]

Were there any assets actually owned by Volare?
Most were leased and returned to their owners when the crooks running that show got caught.
What happened to the pilots and their salaries and pensions?
Another embarrasing corporate disaster.

[Check 6]

Volare, the non-striking subsidiary of Alitalia.

:E

[ORAC]

MILAN (AFX) - Alitalia SpA's plan to acquire Italy's Volare airline as the group's low-cost arm has been blocked by a Rome court, said Radiocor news agency, citing a court judgement issued Jan 27.

Late Friday, Alitalia confirmed its 38 mln eur bid for Volare in an auction organised by Volare's administrator, saying Volare would fit with its business plan and support low-cost operations from Milan.

The judge 'forbids (Alitalia) from participating in the auction organised by the administrator' of Volare, said Radiocor citing the judgement. The court accepted a challenge from Italian rival AirOne to Alitalia's bidding in the auction, it said.

[jollyikarus]

I-FORD

Thanks for the clarification; didn't know that there were so many 'friendly cousins' around!
OK, that's the assets side...and what about the liabilities???

Even so, with such big sums involved, those 29 million Euros for Volare are just chickenfeed....

Still, I wish them luck and if they succeed to maintain a few more jobs in trouble-ridden Italian Aviation, the better!

Cheers,

Ikarus

[EAM]

As far as I know its more than "just the money", AZ and Airone had to present
a plan, about what they will do with Volare, with the saff, Money etc.
Volare created a point system for this and AZ got the most points.

I hope that this means that me and my fellows will finaly get the few thousend Euros that Volare still owns us.:uhoh:

[Wylee coyote]

Didn't Alitalia recently almost close it's doors due to financial difficulty? Then why do the employees think it't a good idea to strike and put the company in more jeopardy?:confused:

[Lord Lucan]

I FORD

That's an interesting assessment of the situation.

What happens to crew members who do not wish to join a strike?

[sniper9652]

Hi, hope this is in the correct forum but can somebody explain why most of Alitalia's a/c are Irish registered, well 'EI' anyway?

Regards, Steve

[GOLF-INDIA BRAVO]

It`s all to do with the leasing company which is Irish and I beieve they put all the aircraft on the Irish register as it makes it easier to get the aircraft back if there are payment problems

G-I-B

[yellowdog]

Hi, hope this is in the correct forum but can somebody explain why most of Alitalia's a/c are Irish registered, well 'EI' anyway?

Regards, Steve

Steve,

Just to let you know only 20 or so out of 170ish frames are registered to the EI- register.

However it seems something that happens a lot in Italy. Air One, Blue Panorama, Meridiana, Myair and Windjet all have lots of Ei- registered aircraft.

Doesn't seem to happen in many other countries.

YD

[Smile!!!]

Strange to have Irish registrations. Does anyone know why?

[shannon55]

Some Russian airlines have their aircraft registered EI too.

[en2r]

Strange to have Irish registrations. Does anyone know why?
The owners must have an Irish aviation licence if the planes are Irish registered. The advantage of this is that you can make your employees work longer hours than on other EU aviation licences. This has been key to the success of Irish airline Ryanair whose entire fleet is Irish registered

[Cyrano]

I think you'll find that the Irish-registered aircraft are not owned by Alitalia but leased to it, usually by Irish-based aircraft lessors.

This isn't unique to Italy - for example in Russia a lot of leased aircraft are registered EI- or VP-B.

contrary to what en2r says, I don't believe that this is for flight duty reasons (Alitalia, Aeroflot etc don't have Irish AOCs after all!) but rather because in some jurisdictions, lessors find it legally easier to repossess foreign-registered aircraft in the event of a default by the airline.

And if you are an Irish-based leasing firm which owns an aircraft that's going to be leased to various carriers over its life, it's easier for you to keep it registered with your "local" CAA throughout its life.

[Smile!!!]

New livery for AZ!!!


Do you think that they think this will really help them in their recent financial struggles? Looks very similar to the old one though.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f296/ottanta/I-DACN2.jpghttp://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f296/ottanta/I-DACN2.jpg

[Talk Wrench]

I heard today that Alitalia is possibly the subject of a take over bid by Air France. Consideration given to the partnering of KLM with Air France, will the successful acquisition of Alitalia eventually lead to a European super Airline? Or, will it lead to a French controlled airline industry with little room for expansion by other European based airlines.

This is not a slate the French question but one that I think does require debate.


Many Regards

TW

[akerosid]

There may well be three large blocks - AF/KL/AZ, LH/LX (possibly OS too) and then BA/IB, with smaller carriers like AY, EI, VS etc. remaining independent.

As far as AZ is concerned, this is "last chance saloon", so if the airline's unions mess this up, that's it; I think that a major part of any deal with AZ will be getting approval of the airline's unions and ensure that the extent of the surgery necessary is fully understood and accepted before the sale goes through.

[RunwayBlueOne]

Jean-Cyril Spinetta stressed today that no discussions or negotiations have taken place with regard to a forthcoming merger with Italian carrier Alitalia.

[Lucifer]

There has been ongoing media discussion about this for months, however many believe it unlikely that a healthy, listed airline has any interest in an ailing mess such as Alitalia. Many reports are probably fanciful thinking of those in Italy who have yet to come to terms with the flag carrier's demise.

However, stranger things have happened - if it is taken over, it is unlikely to survive in its current form.

If I were in an Alitalia union, I would continue to milk it, as the useless Italian governments have shown themselves to be prepared to support it at almost any cost!

[Evileyes]

The companies' reported merger discussions prompted two brokerages to downgrade the Franco-Dutch carrier

Could another major airline industry merger be taking shape -- this time in Europe? According to press reports Nov. 24, one of the items on the agenda in a meeting between Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi and French President Jacques Chirac was a possible merger of Air France-KLM (AKH) and Italian state-controlled carrier Alitalia. But market watchers appeared to take a dim view of the prospects for such a deal.

http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/nov2006/pi20061124_087993.htm?chan=search

[MarlboroLite]

Please forgive me for intruding.

I'm neither an airline pilot or journo!


But surely the proposed merger between Air France/KLM and Alitalia would have implications with the monopolies and mergers department at the EU??

With one giant airline group controlling a large percentage of european air traffic, surely that should raise some red flags with the beaurocrats? :rolleyes:

[Nerik]

I see your point but they are not going to have a monopoly in either Holland, France or Italy if they join up. Sure they will have a significant percentage of traffic but quite a lot of competition would still remain in Europe.

[taffman]

Alitalia has got to be a black hole for money. the bean counters must know this and the Italian goverment has to sort out the mess which is called Italy before any one in their right mind would go any where near it. Shares heading down on news of no tie up.

[gofer]

It is usually considered by the authorities that 30 to 33% of the market constitutes the starting point of a possible monopoly.

Hardly likely that AF/KL/DL/NW/CO and Alitalia have that percentage of the European market, is it? After all with One world, Star Alliance, Ryan and Easy + the little chaps there must be 70% stacked up against them.

Anyway Spinny is not CRAZY - he knows how bad the AZ finances are and he can't afford to bail them out.:uhoh:

[taffman]

The problem is the frog goverment is getting involved withe all this as well as bailing out the flying bus company with all their problems. Dont forget, the frogs make the rules but they dont play by them. The rules are for every one else, Froglands forever and to hell with every one else. :yuk:

[Cyrano]

It is usually considered by the authorities that 30 to 33% of the market constitutes the starting point of a possible monopoly.
Hardly likely that AF/KL/DL/NW/CO and Alitalia have that percentage of the European market, is it?
They probably don't have that much of the total European market, but you can bet they have far more than that fraction of the France<-->Italy market (for example). So a competition ruling might insist that they surrender some of the slots they use for these routes, with the proviso that these slots are to be awarded to competitors to increase choice between (e.g.) CDG and MXP.

[gofer]

Cyrano

Right of course but probably only if the airports in question have NO slots left and the routes are identical !

taffman

Too true, but we don't want to be racially predu... do we - so we can't say that, we can only think it ......:p

Watch that governmental space now....:ok:

[Talk Wrench]

Does this not get to my post about the possibilty of the French trying to dominate the market by using KLM and Alitalia as a foothold?

Having worked for the French production wise on the A380 project, It has become apparent that the French are intent on centralising the total aviation industry within France.

As far as the French are concerned, airbus is French and French only, not a european project, or is that just clever marketing. not sure.

The whole debacle with EADS, the French government and now the possible buyout of alitalia, smacks of the French putting their fingers into too many pies for the self serving French government.

IIRC, Fokker was bankrupted due to French interference and I can see the same happening to KLM and Alitalia and Airbus.

TW

[en2r]

Don't you think you're going a bit OTT. The French are intensely patriotic but the same can be said about the Americans, Italians, Irish etc. KLM is a hugely profitable company and there isn't the slightest chance of them going bankrupt in the near future. As for Airbus a lot of their problems have been caused by constant infighting within the organisation, and its not true to say that the French are the source of all their problems. As for Alitalia, I'd say if they had a choice they wouldn't touch it with a barge pole but Jacque Chirac wants to do a favour to Romano Prodi by saving the jobs of all the Alitalia workers. The French Government do still own 19% of Air France and have significant sway within the company.

[840]

Italy to give up control of Alitalia

Italy’s government said on Friday it would give up its controlling stake in Alitalia, the loss-making national airline, and officials said it was willing in principle to sell its entire 49.9 per cent shareholding.

Immediately after the announcement, Alitalia shares soared by more than 15 per cent to €0.98 in Milan trading, the biggest and fastest gain for the stock since the airline received a €1bn ($1.3bn, £673m) capital injection last year.
..........