alitalia has on many occasions ceased operations. sometimes in a matter of minutes. I was trapped in a plane for a couple of hours when the ground staff at MXP did a wildcat. happened between the time the plane landed and the time it taxied to the skyramp. i do not think it has ever shut down. if one were to do a search on alitalia in FT, one would find hundreds of posts over years and years asking the same question.