Alitalia - Società Aerea Italiana, operating as Alitalia, was the flag carrier of Italy. The company had its head office in Fiumicino, Rome, Italy. Its main hub was Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport in Rome and a secondary was Milan Linate Airport, in Milan.
Alitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane S.p.A. (Alitalia-LAI) was established on 16 September 1946 as Aerolinee Italiane Internazionali. It was formed as a result of an Anglo-Italian agreement and was funded by the Italian Government and British European Airways (BEA). For years Alitalia-LAI lost money owing to problems with pilots and crew members, labour difficulties and governmental and political interference to solve the problems. The Italian government supported Alitalia many times until the European Union set a moratorium on any support before 2011. Alitalia-LAI did not survive this moratorium and went into liquidation in 2008. The viable parts were bought by the private company Alitalia - Compagnia Aerea Italiana (Alitalia-CAI) on 12 December 2008, which started operations on 13 January 2009.
A USA diplomatic cable, disclosed in 2011, summarised the operation as follows: "Under the guise of a rather quaint (and distinctly un-EU) desire to maintain the Italian-ness of the company, a group of wealthy Berlusconi cronies was enticed into taking over the healthy portions of Alitalia, leaving its debts to the Italian taxpayers. The rules of bankruptcy were changed in the middle of the game to meet the government's needs. Berlusconi pulled this one off, but his involvement probably cost the Italian taxpayers a lot of money."
The new Alitalia-CAI doesn't own many of its operating airplanes (Alitalia-LAI owned all of its airplanes), since almost every plane that it had acquired from the old Alitalia-LAI was sold or decommissioned. Instead, Alitalia-CAI airplanes are leased mostly from Aircraft Purchase Fleet, an Irish company owned by Carlo Toto, the ex-owner of the bankrupt Air One which was merged in 2008 to Alitalia-CAI when the new company was founded.
The airline was in extraordinary administration since 2017 (it filed for bankruptcy protection in June 2017), following years of unprofitability. On 24 August 2021, Alitalia announced that it would cease operations on 15 October 2021, and that passengers with tickets for later flights could reschedule on an earlier flight or request a refund. On 15 October 2021, its operations and assets were transferred to ITA Airways (ITA = Italia Trasporto Aereo), the new state-owned flag carrier. Alitalia CityLiner S.p.A. was the regional subsidiary of Alitalia.
Alitalia was member of SkyTeam since 13 Januari 2009 and member of Etihad Airways Partners since 2015.
Livery from 1969
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32, registration I-DIKM, built 1968, serial number 47224 Marco Polo (VCE), Venice, Italy, 21 May 1977
Airbus A321-112, registration I-BIXE, built 1994, serial number 488 Cointrin (GVA), Geneva, Switzerland, 18 July 2010
Livery from 2005
Airbus A319-111, registration EI-IMX, built 2013, serial number 5424 Cointrin (GVA), Geneva, Switzerland, 11 July 2015
Livery from 2015
Airbus A319-112, registration EI-IMG, built 2003, serial number 2086 Cointrin (GVA), Geneva, Switzerland, 13 July 2016
