That Sound of Pasta Hitting the Wall - is Actually Alitalia's Breakup

So yesterday - quietly and without fuss, Alitalia's Chairman declared:

“Alitalia is finished,” Mr Colaninno said yesterday. “There is nothing left.”

And with that he placed Alitalia into Bankruptcy.

So the now very complicated dance of restructuring the valuable bits (allegedly there are some) will begin. It entails some of Silvio's friends putting in some cash. It entails merging assets from AirOne into a new company. Finally it means that AF-KL will take a share. (Lufthansa at the last moment has declined as it has too much on its plate digesting the rest of Germany, Austria and Belgium. Or at least their former national carriers).

Michael O'Leary is probably rubbing his hands with glee as he gets rid of the pesky AirOne and gives him SO much ammunition to blast the deal in front of the EU it is almost laughable.

Will the name survive? Probably not as it has become synonymous with plain old junk.

I like these two versions:

Alitalia: Airplane Landed In Tokyo And Luggage In Atlanta
Alitalia: Always Late In Take-off Always Late In Arrival

Too bad about the staff - they really did push the boat out too far. And any non-government investors well tough cookies to you too.

So now its up to Sr Tajani to rule on the legality (ironic don't you think). If he had any honour he would of course recuse himself from this situation but I doubt it.

Ciao Ciao