Alitalia starts new life as first flights take off
From left, Rocco Sabelli, chief executive of the CAI (Compagnia Aerea Italiana) investors group, and its President Roberto Colaninno, speak at a press conference in Rome, Monday, Jan. 12, 2009. Sign at bottom says: " Alitalia Press Conference, Rome 12 January 2009." Sabelli, CEO of Alitalia's controlling investor group CAI, said the board has accepted Air France-KLM's offer to buy 25 percent of the company for more than euro320 million. Rocco Sabelli told a news conference Monday that Air France presented the most attractive investment offer. As a minority shareholder, Air France-KLM will become a business partner for Alitalia. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)
By ALESSANDRA RIZZO
Associated Press Writer
ROME (AP) – The new Alitalia took off Tuesday but workers marred its launch with protests in Rome and Milan that caused some flight cancellations and delays.
Chairman Roberto Colaninno downplayed the protests as “last demonstrations that are just a small part of the problems that we’ve had to face with the unions.”
The first intercontinental flight from Milan’s Malpensa airport to Sao Paulo, Brazil, departed shortly after 6 a.m. (0500GMT) without incident, as did the first domestic flight from Palermo to Rome, which arrived at 7:25 a.m.
“I’m very excited to have kicked off – if only by chance – this new era in the country’s civil aviation,” Massimiliano Canterini, the captain of the Palermo-Rome flight, told the ANSA news agency.
But in Milan, workers unhappy with both the hiring regime and a deal to make Air France-KLM a minority partner held banners, chanted and marched in protest.
At Milan’s Linate airport the protests forced 11 flights to be scrapped and many to be delayed by some 40 minutes, said Carla Fossati of the SEA company that operates airports in the country’s financial capital. Delays were also reported at Malpensa, where workers blocked check-in areas for a few hours.
At Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport, protesters held a smaller demonstration that caused no immediate disruption to travelers. The protesters staged a mock funeral Monday for Alitalia, and on Tuesday a banner read: “Alitalia, Amen.”
“I started working in 1977 and after 31 years … they sent me away on the 12th of December 2008 with just a letter sent on a computer,” said Gloria de Marchis, a former Alitalia stewardess protesting at the airport.
Alitalia’s 62 years as a state-run company ended in bankruptcy. The new Alitalia is a private company owned by a group of Italian investors who have merged the old Alitalia’s profitable assets with the much smaller Air One, which will retain its separate identity. Air France-KLM is a minority shareholder.
Workers are concerned that the Air France-KLM partnership will further weaken traffic at Malpensa, which already has been demoted from a hub as part of measures to make the failing airline more efficient. However, the new Alitalia management has pledged on Monday to make Malpensa an integral part of the network – and would even consider making it a hub again.
The old Alitalia had been marred by workers protests, including massive ones in November and December, amid ongoing talks with the perspective buyers, which forced the cancellations of hundreds of flights.
Air France-KLM, which withdrew an offer to buy the airline outright last year under union and political opposition, has agreed to pay euro322 million ($431.29 million) in cash and equity to become a minority partner with a 25 percent share in the new company.
The group of some 25 Italian investors – including the chiefs of scooter maker Piaggio, the Pirelli tire company and a highway construction company – bought the bankrupt airline from the Italian government in a euro1.052 billion deal. That includes euro625 million in Alitalia’s debt, which in the meantime has ballooned to at least euro3.2 billion.
The new Alitalia is slimmer than its predecessor, with 148 aircraft from both airlines combined, compared with 173 in the old fleet, and about 12,500 employees, down from more than 23,500 between the two airlines.
The logo remains the same, as do the green flight crew uniforms. The flight plan is streamlined to serve 70 destinations, just 13 of those intercontinental.
Air France-KLM Chairman Jean-Cyril Spinetta called the deal between the airlines “a major operation.” He said this latest example of consolidation in Europe was further evidence that “the European sky needs to regroup into a couple of large groups, especially in this time of great economic uncertainty.”
Associated Press Writer Greg Keller in Paris contributed to this report.
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