Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Alitalia - Unions spoil first Day

The New Alitalia was officially reborn yesterday and the Unions couldn't even hold back to allow the relaunch to pass without incident!

  • Alitalia workers wary of the impact from a new alliance with Air France-KLM demonstrated at Milan's Malpensa Airport by chanting slogans and waving union banners, causing delays.
  • At Rome's Fiumicino Airport, delays of more than two hours were reported as workers marched outside.
The above does NOT bode well for the future of the reborn airline.

See the previous post: Alitalia Reborn - But will it Survive?

But on a lighter note, the following is what I think is a great quote on why the original Alitalia went bankrupt:
"Alitalia died of grandeur," Augusto Fantozzi, who ran it during its bankruptcy told L'Espresso magazine. "It paid triple for everything. To give you an example: it would send three cars to pick up cabin crew, in case the first got a flat tyre and the motor broke down in the second. It was a waste."
Whilst this was part of the problem, a less colourful, but more encompassing summary of the reasons for the failure of Alitalia from Airwise/Reuters:
The state-controlled carrier soon became a vehicle for political favours, and its unionised staff, who enjoyed lavish perks, prevented efforts to restructure to meet the 21st century challenges of an aviation downturn and low-cost competition.


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