Home >> Cambodia tour >> ALITALIA - LINEE AEREE ITALIANE

Alitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane (Italian for Alitalia - Italian Air Lines) (BIT: AZA10) is the flag carrier airline of Italy. Headquartered in Rome, it operates services to 28 domestic and 74 international destinations. Alitalia is the world's 19th largest passenger airline by fleet size. The airline's hub is Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport, Rome. Although Malpensa International Airport, Milan is currently one of Alitalia's hubs, it is in the process of being downgraded to a focus city. The transition should be complete by April, 2008, leaving Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport, Rome as the airline's only hub
Alitalia was established on 16 September 1946 as Aerolinee Italiane Internazionali, more commonly known as Alitalia, an Italian portmanteau of the words ali (wings) and Italia (Italy). It started operations on 5 May 1947, in which year it carried over 10,000 passengers. The inaugural flight was with a Fiat G-12 Alcione, piloted by Virginio Reinero from Turin to Catania and Rome. The first international flight left a year later, travelling between Milan and cities in South America. On 31 October 1957 Alitalia merged with Linee Aeree Italiane and took on the name of Alitalia Linee Aeree Italiane. Alitalia is owned by the Italian Ministry of the Treasury (49%), other shareholders, including employees (49%) and Air France-KLM (2%).

By the 1990s, Alitalia was carrying 25 million passengers annually. In 1997 it set up a regional subsidiary Alitalia Express and in 2001 became a member of the SkyTeam Alliance. In November 2003 Alitalia announced that it would cut 2,700 jobs over the next three years to prepare the airline for a merger with Air France and KLM. In April 2004 Alitalia acquired the bankrupt regional airline Gandalf Airlines to gain additional slots at several European airports, mainly in Milan (Linate) and Paris (Charles De Gaulle).

Alitalia employed 18,182 staff as of March 2007