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ALITALIA IN SERIOUS RISK OF LIQUIDATION

GAC

100+ Posts
BREAKING NEWS:

Alitalia workers have rejected a proposal advanced by Management AND the labor unions for significant cuts in personnel, wages and benefits as part of a refinancing package. The vote was an astounding 67% against the proposal. The Italian Government had previously warned employees that a no vote would lead to the liquidation of the company.

This serious event will certainly place Alitalia on a "cash" basis, with suppliers demanding immediate payment in cash for all goods and services. Alitalia won't be able to sustain this for more than a couple of weeks.

According to media reports, the company is in very serious risk of being liquidated.

More to come .......

http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/noti...o-risultati-serata-152336.shtml?uuid=AEC2QcAB

http://www.repubblica.it/economia/2...ore-163780733/?ref=RHPPLF-BL-I0-C8-P1-S1.8-T1

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-al...ourse-for-administration-union-sources-2017-4
 
From my previous experience during the time that there were headlines like this - don't consider flying with Alitalia until these issues are resolved. We were stranded for 16 hours in Fiumicino (at night!) because of a wildcat strike by the pilots (I believe this was in autumn 2008). Hundreds of people from cancelled flights, with no offers of accommodation by the company, and no compensation, stuck in the airport with their luggage. Quite a nightmare. We are never flying with them again (your experience might be better).
 
A FlyerTalk discussion : trying to see what to expect. Some say they're safe to fly through May, others give a few more months. Today the government is initiating a bridge loan of 300-400 million € for that. I'm thinking it might be nice to fly their Boston-Rome non-stop if it operates; if it's booked as a Delta code-share, would Delta re-accommodate us on their own flights?
 
If the ticket is issued by Delta (or Air France), using their identifier code, they would be contractually obligated to honor the transportation by finding an alternative solution. Not so if the ticket were issued by Alitalia. If the ticket is purchased using a US Credit card, there should be additional protections. Best advice is NOT to book on the Alitalia website, nor buy a ticket issued by Alitalia.

Advance bookings on Alitalia are likely to crawl to a halt, and indeed Italian media is reporting that some organizations are already stopping their own employees from booking Alitalia on their corporate travel websites.

You can look at the seat selection maps for Alitalia flights on several websites, to get an idea of just how many seats are being booked for future flights.
 
I'm very sorry to hear this, but it's been a long time coming and, sadly, I think they brought it on themselves. In our early days of Italy travel we always went out of our way to book Alitalia. We were in their corner and overlooked a lot of the niggling little problems, but major issues, such as two flights (two!!) with no lights, power - no nothing in our section of the plane and they knew it before take-off (Try sitting in the dark for eight hours) made us swear off the brand. It made me wonder about what other corners were being cut.
 
Today they're entering bankruptcy proceedings: Reuters.

"Once under administration, the government will appoint one or several commissioners to assess whether Alitalia can be restructured, either as a standalone company or through a partial or total sale, or should be liquidated.

...


The company is losing about 1 million euros ($1.1 million) a day and without government support risks running out of cash by the middle of May, sources have said.

The government has already thrown it a short-term lifeline, a bridging loan of up to 400 million euros to see it through the bankruptcy process."
 
Found out by happenstance yesterday while calling Delta (ticket seller) to confirm seat assigments for a May 18 non-stop Alitalia codeshare ORD-FCO that the flight had been cancelled (don't know exactly when)! Delta's site continued to show original itinerary but Alitalia website showed new routing and times (and dreadful seat assigments). I was able to get Delta to give me a better re-routing using only Delta metal and decent seats. Even after getting written confirmation from Delta and having this preferred itinerary now showing on Delta 'my trips' site, Alitalia site does not (yet?) reflect these changes.
 
We booked through Delta last fall for late June non stop between Boston and FCO. They changed our outbound flight soon after booking to Alitalia and our return through Air France. Wondering if we should give Delta a call.
 

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