Word: alitalia
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...million euros a day. That's the amount of money Alitalia, Italy's national airline, is now hemorrhaging. That nice (or, rather, nasty) round figure succinctly quantifies just how dire the carrier's crisis has become. Alitalia's troubles are nothing new, of course, as the government-controlled company tallied some three billion euros in net losses between 1999-2006, becoming a running joke among industry insiders and a mounting burden on Italian taxpayers. Last fall, Prime Minister Romano Prodi declared the situation at Alitalia "out of control," and vowed to personally lead the search for a solution. But when...
...with that "two-million-euro-a-day" figure (which equals about $2.7 million a day) still buzzing in the ears of government officials, investors and ordinary Italians, Alitalia is making its next move to stave off collapse. On Sep. 7, Alitalia's board is expected to finalize the details of what it is billing as a "survival/transition" plan for 2008-2010. Cynics will liken it to the allotment of a few fire extinguishers for the Hindenburg. Union officials have said that the plan calls for the company to try raise up to 1.5 billion euros in capital, cut some...
...reminder of how every step Alitalia takes comes loaded with political implications, the plan is also expected to reinstate Rome's Fiumicino airport as the airline's primary transatlantic hub, pulling flights from Milan's Malpensa airport. A decade ago, the construction of the airport 30 miles (50 km) northwest of Milan was seen as a great victory for powerful northern politicians. Now both the Milanese mayor Letizia Moratti and the governor of the Lombardy region Roberto Formigoni - both rising stars of the center-right, which is the opposition in the capital - have vowed to fight the plan. Alitalia officials...
...Standing before an Alitalia cabin full of reporters, two hours into the 12-hour flight to Sao Paulo, the Pope expressed his support for the Mexican bishops in the face of that country's first-ever law legalizing first term abortions. "Yes, that they are excommunicated isn't something arbitrary. It's envisioned in the law of the Church that ? the killing of a human child is incompatible with being in communion with the body of Christ...
...While Alitalia represents a final chapter in the consolidation of European flag carriers, Spinetta insists that the next big development in the sector--transatlantic deregulation--will send shock waves around the globe. The U.S. and E.U. recently agreed on a long-sought open-skies accord. "And things change considerably from there. That won't just lead to reinforced partnerships between airlines but will also encourage other open-skies treaties between the U.S. and Asia, and Asia and the E.U." In other words, the real battle of the world's skies is only starting--just as Air France can feel confident...