Free Republic

Italy's storied flag carrier has announced it will no longer issue tickets, triggering a countdown of just a few weeks until its familiar red and green livery vanishes from our skies for good. The nationally owned airline is to be replaced in October by ITA, a smaller company with a different logo, but the service which once carried Italian pride, style and cuisine -- not to mention the Pope -- to all corners of the planet will be long gone. While the demise of Alitalia might bring a sense of loss for many Italians, it's unlikely to come as a...

The CEO of Germany’s Lufthansa has said the company would be interested in buying Italy’s troubled flagship carrier if an opportunity arose to “to create a new Alitalia”. His comments come just days before an October 16th deadline for the submission of bids. Ryanair pulled out of the running earlier this month as it deals with a shortage of pilots that forced it to cancel thousands of flights. Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr told German media on Thursday: “Alitalia as it exists today is not up for debate. But if there was a chance of creating a new Alitalia, then as...

s the pope stalkers of the world watched his flight path on the Alitalia website, suddenly… the plane started making donuts. Several loops over North Carolina later, the pope is back on his way to D.C.: A source on the ground at Joint Base Andrews said several government officials told him the reason the plane started circling was that Obama and Biden are running late to the greeting ceremony. Ooops. Seems like even the bishop of Rome has to adjust his schedule around Beltway traffic.

Alitalia, the bankrupt Italian airline, is selling off its multimillion-pound collection of modern art to help to reduce crippling debts, as it prepares for a relaunch next month under new ownership. The collection includes works by some of the 20th century’s most bankable artists, including Salvador DalÍ, Giorgio De Chirico and Giacomo Balla. Alitalia also holds paintings by the leading Futurist panter Gino Severini, who, towards the end of his life, was commissioned to paint works for the airline’s Paris offices. Art experts said Alitalia held nearly 200 significant modern works of art. While not all would fetch high prices,...

ROME - The Italian government is holding emergency talks with unions and investors over a plan to save Alitalia as the bankrupt airline risks having to ground flights for lack of fuel. The rescue plan would have investors buying profitable assets and investing $1.4 billion amid wage cuts and layoffs that are opposed by the unions. The government is mediating emergency talks that started Saturday and resumed Sunday morning.

Alitalia, the stricken Italian national airline, has fallen into foreign hands after accepting a takeover offer from Air France-KLM worth €747m (£574m). The sale marks the end of a tortuous process for the carrier that began at the end of 2006 when Romano Prodi, the former Italian prime minister, put it up for sale - declaring it was "out of control". Suitors including Aeroflot and Texas Pacific ran the rule over Alitalia but decided against bidding. When Air France first announced "exploratory talks" 15 months ago, Alitalia was worth 95.4 cents a share. Yesterday's deal, struck after an 11-hour board...

...Bloody-minded optimists say... the climactic shake-out is finally upon us. Once the cleansing is done, the airlines will go back to being profitable and sustainable like "normal" industries. Don't bet on it. Airlines have shown an ability to mint short-term profits in an economic bounceback when demand grows faster than they can lay on more jets and gates. But that's not the same thing as being able to make profits consistently enough to pay back the capital invested in the industry. The airlines have never been able to do this, at least not since deregulation.... Airports, meanwhile, are local monopolies...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Alitalia pilot stunned passengers flying to Tel Aviv on Israel's Memorial Day by announcing "Welcome to Palestine, Happy Independence Day to Palestine," aviation authorities said. Israel celebrates 55 years of independence Wednesday after remembering its 21,540 war dead on Tuesday in ceremonies at graveyards across the country. "(The pilot's comment) was insensitive on a day when thousands of people are at cemeteries," said Pini Schiff, spokesman for Israel's Civil Aviation Authority. He told Reuters the CAA would send a formal complaint to aviation regulators. Orly Segal, Alitalia's commercial manager in Tel Aviv, said the airline had...

LYON, France (AP) - An airplane with 67 passengers on board landed in the southern French city of Lyon on Wednesday afternoon, possibly hijacked from Italy, French officials say. Authorities in Lyon, France's second-largest city, said that some of the passengers had gotten off the plane and that "a terrorist was on board." A spokesperson for the National Police in Paris would not confirm or deny whether the plane had been hijacked but said that "the incident was over, without injuries and that a man had given himself up." France Info radio said the plane belonged to Italian carrier Alitalia...