ALITALIA IN BIG TROUBLE

Alitalia is in big trouble. An urgent rescue is needed and it will most likely come from the Air France-KLM group who already owns 25% of the Italian airline; however, they are going to negotiate the rescue up to the last minute, as it is not an easy rescue. Alitalia has been loosing money for a long time and it is well known in the travel world as an airline which is over staffed and over paid. Not a good recipe in these lean times. Berlusconi opposed AF-KLM's earlier bid to increase their stake in the airline. The catch was that they also wanted to streamline it and Alitalia has always been used for nepotism and subsidised employment. And I am not talking about the last few years. In any case, time will tell, although there is not much of it left..
Here is an interesting link Alitalia's problems

Yes, I saw this here this morning BBC LINK It does not look very good for them, but you never know what might transpire out of any shake up in the way of cheaper or better flights for its customers...

More bad news, I'm afraid Alitalia may be grounded

When I lived in Kuwait, 20 years ago, my next door neighbour, a Kuwaiti engineer for Kuwait Airlines, (his name was Mudda), said, the one airline everybody would avoid was Alitalia! I've never forgotten what he said.

Obviously, he never flew Aeroflot back in the 60's... Really scary! 

Well, he didn't perhaps, but I worked with an analyst who was married to a Bangladeshhi, and he forced her and their two daughters to fly to Bangladesh with Aeroflot each year for their holidays. We never knew if we would see them again.

They may have improved...

Mentioning Aeroflot reminds me of a flight on a Chinese domestic flight in the mid 90s on an ex Aeroflot plane - only an open parcel shelf, bald tyres, condensation inside that looked like smoke and an aborted landing - doesn't get much better? than that

Another airline with a poor rep is TAP (I was told it was known as "Try Another Plane"

Have only flown Alitalia on 3 trips - first one they left my baggage en route at Paris. The most recent were this year - required a change at Milan or Rome but apart from that quite good and cheaper than Ryanair on those occasions and much more civilised.

JulianaAlice wrote:Well, he didn't perhaps, but I worked with an analyst who was married to a Bangladeshhi, and he forced her and their two daughters to fly to Bangladesh with Aeroflot each year for their holidays. We never knew if we would see them again.

In 1981 we had the choice of flying Bangkok to London on either Aeroflot or Biman Bangladesh.  Because Aeroflot planes tended to fall out of the sky we chose the latter (not an ideal choice - but we made it alive!!).

So it's interesting to learn that your analyst friend opted for Aeroflot over Biman (or perhaps he didn't have the choice).

The latest on Alitalia's woes, Ryanair wanting to help!  
Alitalia and Ryanair
P.S. More on the same topic http://www.france24.com/en/20131126-ryanair-steps-flights-italy-alitalia-suffers

Can't blame them, but they may regret not at least looking at the offer...