Alitalia Societ Aerea Italiana (Alitalia Italian Air Company), operating as Alitalia, is the flag

carrier and national airline of Italy. The company has its head office in Fiumicino, Rome, Italy. Its
main hub is Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport, in Rome and a secondary is Milan Linate
Airport, in Milan. Other focus airports are Catania-Fontanarossa Airport, Milan-Malpensa
Airport, Palermo Airport, Turin Airport and Venice Marco Polo Airport. Tirana Airport is the only
focus city outside Italy. On 30 September 2014, Alitalia's budget subsidiary Air One ceased flight
operations. In 2014, it was the eleventh-largest airline in Europe.
The name "Alitalia" is an Italian portmanteau of the words ali (wings), and Italia (Italy). In late
2013, facing bankruptcy, the loss of a major fuel supplier, and a possible grounding by Italy's
civil aviation authority, the airline announced a 500 million rescue package which includes a
75 million investment by the Italian state-owned postal operator.
On 1 August 2014, the Abu Dhabi-based UAE national airline Etihad Airways confirmed it had
agreed to terms with Alitalia on taking a 49% stake in the Italian airline. This deal was signed on
8 August 2014 and became effective on 1 January 2015.

History
Creation of Alitalia-CAI
In 2008, a group of investors made the "Compagnia Aerea Italiana" (CAI) consortium aimed to buy the
bankrupt Alitalia Linee Aeree Italiane ("old" Alitalia) and to merge these with Air One, another bankrupt Italian
carrier.
On 30 October 2008, CAI offered 1 billion to acquire parts of the bankrupt airline, amidst pilots' and flight crew
members' opposition to labour agreements. On 19 November 2008, CAI's offer was accepted by the bankruptcy
administrator of Alitalia with the permission of the Italian government, at the time major shareholder of the bankrupt
airline. Alitalia's profitable assets were transferred to CAI on 12 December 2008 after CAI paid 1052 million,
consisting of 427 million in cash and the assumption of responsibility for 625 million in Alitalia debt.
A USA diplomatic cable disclosed in 2011 summarized 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."
On 13 January 2009, the "new" Alitalia launched operations. The owners of Compagnia Aerea Italiana sold 25% of
the company's shares to Air France-KLM for 322 million. Air France-KLM also obtained an option, subject to certain
conditions, to purchase additional shares after 2013.
The "new" Alitalia has not claimed the old Alitalia's history as its own, as can be seen in official documents regarding
the new "Alitalia Group". Instead, they stressed they are a totally different company, as it can be seen in different

occasions. For example, they chose not to recognize benefits such as discounted tickets to former Alitalia-LAI
workers. They also refused to honor passengers' claims against the old Alitalia on this basis.
The new Alitalia doesn't own many of its operating airplanes. Alitalia-LAI instead owned 100% of its airplanes. Almost
every plane that CAI had acquired from the old Alitalia 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.

History under new ownership

In January 2010, Alitalia celebrated its first anniversary since the relaunch. It carried 22 million passengers in its first
year of operations. In 2011, 25 million passengers were carried. On 1 February 2010, it was announced that Alitalia
crew would go on a four-hour strike over wages. This was the first strike action for Alitalia since the relaunch. On 11
February 2010, Alitalia announced that, starting from March 2010, it would use Air One as a low-fare airline ("Smart
Carrier"), with operations based at Milan Malpensa Airport, focused on short-haul leisure routes. It was predicted that
the subsidiary would handle 2.4 million passengers by 2012. In 2011, 1.4 million passengers were carried by the
subsidiary. Although operations were initially to be concentrated at Milan Malpensa, Air One later operated from
Milan-Malpensa, Venice-Marco Polo, Pisa and Catania as of January 2013.
On 12 February 2011, information was released about a possible merger between Alitalia and Meridiana Fly, another
Italian carrier. The merger was not effected. On 23 February 2011, Alitalia and ENAC announced the introduction of a
safety card written in braille and characters in 3-D relief, which is the first of its kind.
On 25 January 2012, Alitalia signed memoranda of understanding with two other Italian airlines, Blue
Panorama and Wind Jet, and said to have started processes "aimed at achieving integration" with them. By the end
of July 2012, the Italian antitrust authority allowed Alitalia to acquire Wind Jet, but in return Alitalia would have to cede
slots on domestic routes. Faced with this, Alitalia cancelled the plans a few days later in August 2012.
On 3 May 2013, in a sting codenamed "Operation Clean Holds", police made 49 arrests at Rome's Fiumicino airport,
with another 37 in Italian airports including Bari, Bologna, Milan Linate, Naples, Palermo and Verona. All were Alitalia
employees caught on camera and most were charged with aggravated theft and damage. Hidden-camera footage
has been released showing employees rifling through, stealing from, and intentionally damaging passengers'
baggage belonging to various carriers.
In June 2014, the Abu Dhabi-based UAE national airline Etihad Airways announced it was taking a 49% stake in
Alitalia. On 1 January 2015, Alitalia-CAI formally passed its operations to Alitalia-SAI, a new entity owned 49% by Abu
Dhabi-based Etihad Airways and 51% owned by the former Italian stakeholders of Alitalia-CAI.
In May 2015, Alitalia also announced to terminate their partnership with Air France-KLM in 2017 stating that there are
no longer enough advantages from the joint-venture to keep it up.
In February 2016, Alitalia announced to cancel in late March 2015 all flights from Pisa,
included Moscow, Prague, Berlin, Catania andTirana. Alitalia decided to maintain flights to Olbia and Rome.