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Alitalia news: auction collapses, government mulls options

Globaliser

By Globaliser,
in Cruise Air

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Kolleen

Kolleen

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Good luck nomoredyess! I am going to be cheering everyone on who leaves before us. Maybe the good luck fairy will hear and keep Alitalia flying through August when we are going.

 

I have never been so interested in Italian politics before! lol

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nomoredyess

nomoredyess

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Good luck nomoredyess! I am going to be cheering everyone on who leaves before us. Maybe the good luck fairy will hear and keep Alitalia flying through August when we are going.

 

I have never been so interested in Italian politics before! lol

 

 

If it makes you feel any better I have a couple of pics from when the Pope came and visited when he flew on Alitalia.......Hope he blessed it through the summer!!!

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Kolleen

Kolleen

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The latest news:

 

http://www.lifeinitaly.com/news/news-detailed.asp?newsid=9874

 

Italy has a month to reply to a letter it hasn't received yet. Then the EC has to decide whether it accepts the Italian reasons for the loan. I am hoping that means that Alitalia will continue flying through the summer while this is all debated.

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nomoredyess

nomoredyess

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Nomoredyess, I would be delighted to hear how your flight went, and if we should pack food, or are they really bare bones now. Good luck, you only have a few more days! I have to wait til you get back, jeesh.

 

 

Alitalia was as good as any of the other Airlines these days. We were on time to the runway but got held up in traffice to dpeart and were 10 mintues late or so (no big deal and nothing out of the ordinary for JFK!!! Dinner was served within 1 1/2 hrs of taking off, I liked it the wife not so much, get the fish!!! They let you get up and get your own drinks during the rest of the flight after dinner. Lets you get up and that way they dont block the route to the restrooms. Service was good, ALL of our bags made it quickly I should add to the pick-up point. A few suggestions:

 

Get enough Euro to survive the first day or 2, all of the ATMS were down at FCO (of course) and they rob you at the Airport's exchange office!!!

 

Come a day early if its not too late. We were beat when we got to the ship.

 

We went to Capri yesterday and it was nothing short of amazing!!!:D

 

Book something for Izmir, Todd says there is absolutely nothing in the port and its 1 1/2 to the sites.

 

Hope this helped, have a good one

 

John

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Kolleen

Kolleen

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Thanks for the report on the flight. I just hope I get to go on the flight in August. : )

 

We are going one night early just to try and catch up on our sleep. We are going straight to Civitavecchia and staying there rather than trying to do any sightseeing. I figured we would be exhausted.

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ItaliaAmerCruzLady

ItaliaAmerCruzLady

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Thanks for the flight report, sounds pretty good actually, We are taking the Grand Med cruise, rather than the greek isles and Turkey., but it sounds like its a good one,too.

We are flying a day early and trying to take in some of Rome, and a Vatican tour the morning before we head off to the ship. I am hoping I can sleep on the flight,since its when we normally sleep anyway.

Any advice out there for fighting off the jet lag? Anyway, Kolleen, I will give a full report of my findings when I go in 8 days now.

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ItaliaAmerCruzLady

ItaliaAmerCruzLady

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I just heard from friends that their flight was delayed on Alitalia today, in fact they didnt even have her and her hubby on the same flight, I think they got it straightend out.

Do they ever change a flights times to be earlier rather than later? We will be checking our times in the next couple days, but, I wouldnt mind earlier if we get a heads up about it, sure dont want it to be later.

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Clairescurtains

Clairescurtains

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We sure don't need them to make our flight earlier.

We are on a tight schedule as far as I am concerned.

We fly to LGA and arrive at 1:06 and have to get to JFK and our Alitalia flight leaves at 4:06. When we first booked this flight we were getting into LGA at 11:00 or so but Deltal/Comair cancelled the earlier flight.

We do basically the same thing on our return but have another 50 min or so between flights.

I just hope everyone is on time and still flying by Sept.:eek:

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ItaliaAmerCruzLady

ItaliaAmerCruzLady

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Ahhhggghhh! Our friends that were supposed to be flying out of Miami on Alitalia were still on the ground 18hrs later! They were on the tarmac for 3 hrs before they got them all off. They were actually served dinner while they waited and then they were taken off the plane, something about the pilots chair?:rolleyes:

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Globaliser

Globaliser

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The unions continue to adopt their traditional attitude, so far as one can see. The annual general meeting on Saturday was a miserable affair, according to the FT:-

Alitalia on 'last chance' for survival

 

By Guy Dinmore and Silvia Marchetti in Rome

Published: June 30 2008 03:00 | Last updated: June 30 2008 03:00

 

With its shares suspended, foreign takeover talks fallen apart, and losses of about €1m ($1.6m) a day, Alitalia's chairman, Aristide Police, had some angry shareholders on his hands at the Italian flag-carrier's annual meeting.

 

Offering just a few budget snacks to the 36 shareholders who struggled out to the airline's remote headquarters on Saturday, Mr Police made no effort to placate them, admitting the airline was facing its "last chance" to survive, and that management had to carry out a "rupture with the past".

 

Signing off the 2007 balance sheet with a consolidated net loss of €495m and operating loss of €310m, Mr Police, a lawyer trained in the classics, declared it "orribilis". KPMG was appointed to replace Deloitte & Touche as auditors.

 

He cited a long list of factors behind Alitalia's crisis: increasing competition from low-cost carriers, high fuel prices, resigning board members leading to "unstable governance", conflicts with trade unions, an unrealisable industrial plan and loss of reputation costing €150m.

 

Calling for support and sacrifices, Mr Police - the fourth Alitalia chairman in less than two years - took oblique aim at powerful unions and meddlesome politicians, saying "unjustified privileges and power games" had to end. Small shareholders got up to shout and curse the politicians, saying they had for years used the state's 49.9 per cent shareholding to "ruin" the airline, creating a proliferation of unprofitable airports.

 

...

Yet the unions continue to be intransigent:-
Alitalia unions criticise reported job cuts

06.30.08, 4:43 AM ET

 

MILAN (Thomson Financial) - Union representatives have criticised reported plans to cut at least 4,000 people at the troubled airline Alitalia SpA, Italian newspapers reported.

 

'If this is the case, we won't even sit at the negotiating table,' the UIL Trasporti leader Giuseppe Caronia told the daily La Repubblica.

 

In an interview with the newspaper Il Messaggero, pilot union ANPAC President Fabio Berti said if the figure is correct, the business plan would have no chance of being implemented.

 

...

Honestly!

 

The news about the new auditors is interesting. Clearly, there was a real problem behind the delay in approving the accounts, and Deloitte's have refused to continue to act. It's an interesting question as to how KPMG think that they will be able to do anything differently. Still, it'll probably all prove to be academic in a year's time!

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ItaliaAmerCruzLady

ItaliaAmerCruzLady

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We are back, Alitalia was just fine, we were on time within a few mins both ways, the crew was accomodating, they fed us well, (well, as well as you can get on an airplane without being first class) I will say that the airport in Rome, especially Alitalia area, was a real chaotic mess. No order, just hoards of people trying to make their flights all surging forward, it was hot, uncomfortable, and took an inordinately long time, I thought, to get through it all.

Then they kept changing our gate, so we had to run all over checking and rechecking. Once on the plane, things were fine, and they made the long flight bearable.

Good luck to all that are still flying her this summer, I dont think there will be a problem.

BTW, the friend that was stuck in Miami finally got out after being stranded there for 27hrs.:(

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lb0103

lb0103

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As more of you are going in Aug. I would appreciate hearing anything on your return.

 

We have a flight out from Boston on 10/27 and back on 11/13 so anything would be nice to hear.

 

Our flights are through Royal Caribbean at our request as they are the only nonstop flight from Boston to Rome. So at this point we are not asking to be changed as that would be a big fee for us.

 

Looking forward to hearing from the summer fliers.

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Kolleen

Kolleen

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ItaliaAmerCruzLady - thank you for the report. It is great to get first hand experience.

 

We come home at 9am, so we have to be at the airport by 6am I think. I am hoping that means the airport will be less crowded and less hot.

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ItaliaAmerCruzLady

ItaliaAmerCruzLady

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Kolleen, good luck to you, it shouldnt be that bad , that early. Are you leaving the same day as your cruise docks? I know that Carnival was very good about getting the folks that had early flights out very early (5:45 of so) but it is an hour to the airport from Civitaveccia to Fuimicino airport.

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hrhm7

hrhm7

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Just as an FYI - I just returned flying Alitalia Miami to Rome and back. The first trip was about 1/2 hour delayed. Coming home was about a 1 hour delay. Otherwise everything went very smoothly.

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