Alitalia: rebirth after near bankruptcy

[sn26567]

While continuing strikes by flight crews have caused an additional loss of 20 million euros for Alitalia in just 10 days (100 flights a day cancelled, out of 600), Italian Prime Minister is pushing for an alliance of the national carrier with Lufthansa. This alliance looks much more favourable to the airport of Milan Malpensa, whereas Air France KLM would rather develop Rome Fiumicino.

The total debt of Alitalia is now 2.3 billion euros.

[euroflyer]

While continuing strikes by flight crews have caused an additional loss of 20 million euros for Alitalia in just 10 days (100 flights a day cancelled, out of 600), Italian Prime Minister is pushing for an alliance of the national carrier with Lufthansa. This alliance looks much more favourable to the airport of Milan Malpensa, whereas Air France KLM would rather develop Rome Fiumicino.

The total debt of Alitalia is now 2.3 billion euros.

Hm, hm, LH would than have hubs, wait, in BRU, FRA, MUC, ZRH, VIE and MXP (plus probably FCO)

All not too far from each other (especially MUC; ZRH; VIE; MXP), not sure if that would really work. But of course they would arrange good connections from MXP via MUC, ZRH or VIE whereas with AF they would require to go via CDG, not really practical if you want to go to India, Asia, Africa, etcetera

[sn26567]

Alitalia sale finally lands

After a decade of losses and accumulating several billion euros in debts and state aid, the flight division of Italy's state-controlled Alitalia was sold on 12 December 2008 to Compagnia Aerea Italiana (CAI), a consortium of 21 Italian investors headed by Piaggio boss Roberto Colaninno. They hope quickly to sell a minority stake in the airline to Air France-KLM (most probably) or to Lufthansa.

CAI is paying a total of 1.052 billion euros for Alitalia's flight division, which includes assets as well as selective debts from ordering new aircraft. Alitalia's flight division was able to be spun off and sold separately from its loss-making activities thanks to changes made last summer to Italy's bankruptcy laws.

12 January 2009 is the date set for the conversion from the old state-owned carrier to the new private national airline. The new airline will initially employ some 12,500 out of the nearly 17,000 staff at Alitalia and another 3,000 at Air One.

[regi]

If this is the final solution, it is not so bad after all for the ex Alitalian workers.

[LX-LGX]

After another series of cancelled flights because of industrial action, ENAC (the Italian civil aviation authority) will now take action. Alitalia will be confronted with infracts against EU-Regulation 261/2004, the EU-law which is forcing airlines to assist and inform passengers and (eventually) pay them an indemnity when their flights is cancelled or delayed.

http://www.ansa.it/opencms/export/site/ ... 30825.html

(in aviation legislation, only a wildcat strike is generally seen as hand of God / overmacht / force majeure)

[luchtzak]

Passenger traffic in November on board Alitalia down 50% compared to last year.

[Air Key West]

According to Il Corriere della Sera, 97-98% of AZ workers who have received offers to work for CAI (the new Alitalia) have accepted the offers so far. It is expected that the new and lean Alitalia (same name will be kept) will start to fly some time in January. Maybe time to change the title of this thread to : Alitalia : take-off is near

[sn26567]

CAI will change its name to Alitalia. Operations will start on 13 January 2009. CAI will retain 12,500 Alitalia workers while cutting some 3,250 jobs. It is still looking for a foreign partner, with ongoing discussions with Lufthansa, Air France and British Airways.

[Air Key West]

According to a financial newspaper in Milan, there would already be an agreement between AZ and AF-KL, but this info has not been confirmed. AZ have informed they will meet LH CEO Mayrhuber next week for a last negotiation with LH, but the final decision concerning the international partner should still be taken before the new Alitalia takes off on 13 JAN and AF-KL seem to be in pole position. Strange to have chosen a 13 as launching date. Isn't 13 supposed to be a number the airline industry prefers to avoid. Anyway, all the best to the new AZ and if anybody flies with them after the 13th, please send us a trip report. Thanks.

[Air Key West]

According to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, today, a deal has been struck between AZ and AF. AF would invest 300 million euros and get a 25 % share in the Italian airline. AZ has cancelled the appointment it had with LH for next week. The official and final deal should be signed in the coming days and the new AZ with a 25 % AF participation should take off as expected on 13 JAN.

[sn26567]

There will be no flights during the night of 12 to 13 January 2009, due to the switch from the old to the new Alitalia. Flights will be stopped for one night to allow all operations requested by ENAC regarding licences and certifications to pass from the old to the new airline, which will start on January 13.

[ticketbuyer]

The Milan newspapers are full of stories about brave politicians fighting to save Malpensa i.e. to get LH to buy a share in Alitalia not AF-KLM.
A friend of mine recently arrived at Malpensa from Istanbul to find that Swissair had lost her, and several other peoples' luggage.
Nobody at the Lost luggage office could speak English and the documents were only in Italian, you can imagine the chaos and frustration.
Not the kind of airport I would want my passengers to use nor a good advertisment for potential investors.
Incidentally, Swissair also lost her luggage on the way back!
I told her to use Myair next time.

[Zealot]

you mean swissport ?

[LX-LGX]

For those who still believe that the New Alitalia will be different from the old one: the first strike from the New Alitalia is planned for Monday 19th January 2009 = one week after the "rebirth" (strike will be limited to 10h00-14h00).

Trust today's strike - another 135 flights were cancelled - was necessary to prepare for the "rebirth" on 12-13 January...

[ticketbuyer]

It looks ever more likely that AF-KLM will be the lucky winner of a share in New Alitalia
Berlusconi seems to have given his royal assent, with a freer slot availability at Malpensa as compensation and there are rumors that LH never made a financial offer, only a chance to join Star
So AF-LKM might get 25% of a much leaner airline, including Air One, for 300 million Euros rather than the Billion Euros they were going to pay for the Old Alitalia. Looks like a good deal

[sn26567]

Air France Board approved Alitalia bid and awaits acceptance

Air France-KLM Group’s board Friday approved a bid of about 320 million euros for25 % of Alitalia SpA. Alitalia’s leaders will meet in Rome on Jan. 12 to consider accepting the offer.

With a 25% stake, Air France-KLM will become the majority stockholder in Alitalia but it will not be able to buy the rest of the airline for a five-year period due to a lock-up clause in the CAI statute.

Lufthansa is in contact with Alitalia and there is “still the possibility of making an offer”. Lufthansa has presented a proposal for a tie-up between its Star Alliance airline grouping and Alitalia, though the German carrier hasn’t made an offer for a stake.

More from Bloomberg and ANSA

[euroflyer]

OK, now we all know the NEW Alitalia will stay in Skyteam like the old has been. It has a shareholder AF/KLM with some 25% or so (correct?).

Any news on the start of the operations? Is everything running relatively smooth? What is the fleet looking like? Do they still have MD's active?

And any information on the status of Air One? are they still flying under their name? Or have they already been fully integrated into the NEW Alitalia? I guess LH will not like to continue their planes flying around for the new skyteam Alitalia with the big stickers 'Partner of Lufthansa' on their fuselage ... especially once they start Lufthansa Italia themselves soon. Does anybody know if Air One will continue to use the Miles&More programme of Lufthansa?

Thank you for any information available!

[Air Key West]

Since giving birth to the new Alitalia was so difficult and that the final deal was signed just before the first flight of the new AZ took off, many things will probably still have to be settled (at least for the public).
Given that LH is said to have been in the running until the end, LH will not have had time to put an end to its co-operation with AirOne. That will be done soon (if it has not been done yet) and we should soon receive a message that AirOne is no longer a partner of Star Alliance. I also assume you cannot earn Star Alliance miles with AirOne anymore, since the airline has merged with the new AZ and does no longer exist. I assume all previous AirOne flights operate now under an AZ flight number.
As to aircraft, I seem to remember that AZ's MD's and EMB145's are up for sale and that AirOne's A320's are integrated into the new AZ (they should get a repaint job soon, I suppose).

[ticketbuyer]

AF-KLM is the largest shareholder with 25% and CAI holds the other 75%.
Alitalia website says the livery of AZ, Airone and Volare will remain 'for a few months'. MilleMigla applies on all 3. They are trying to sell 21 MDs so they must still have quite a few, the MD-82 is still shown as part of the fleet and airlineblogspot.com shows them still being used on domestic and international routes.
Airone website shows 22 of their routes now operated by AZ which are not bookable through Airone and on which Miles&More will not apply. It seems to be possible to earn and use both types of points on these flights, is this the first time this has been possible? All other Airone routes appear unchanged. They still display the 'partner of Lufthansa' logo.
The first day of operation was marred by airport workers demonstrating against the loss of jobs, and some flights were delayed and cancelled, but the second day seems to have gone smoothly. The unions have promised more strikes and the politicians still argue about FCO, MXP and LIN; they have to justify their enormous salaries. Business as usual in Italy

[ticketbuyer]

look at http://www.avionews.com/index for more news on Italian aviation. It says something about the Frequent Flyer schemes