Future of Alitalia - 2017 edition
 

Considering booking AZ for June 2017 (short-haul) but a bit hesitant from all the fear-mongering in the press about AZ's finances.

It's hard for me to tell... just how bad is AZ's financial condition currently? Is there truly a chance they may not be operating by then?

Thanks FT!

Very bad, even though I doubt they'll go belly-up but, still, they have recently been cutting a significant number of routes and it appears that they will be dismissing even more in the months to come (there are rumours of some important management changes in the pipeline). Would you mind sharing where you're planning to go as we may be able to advise further (more-or-less)?

G

LHR-FCO round-trip

BA is obviously the alternate, but currently double the cost of AZ...

Thanks!

Buy the AZ ticket ... and trip insurance?

A heavily reduced route over the years (AZ used to have ~15 services from LHR to FCO/LIN/MXP, currently only 3 daily to FCO and 2 to LIN) but still one of the most important in the whole network hence I'd easily go for it.

G

How about FCO-TLV?

Fine - exactly like LHR, LCY (from LIN), CAI, IKA etc., probably the most profitable in AZ's medium-haul network (it used to have a few frequencies with 330 a couple of years back, exactly like IKA as we speak).

G

Hi. I have an domestic flight - NAP-LIN scheduled for June. Just booked it last week.
Should I be considering a train as well?

Again, I wouldn't worry (this is a shuttle route with nearly 10 daily services - no risk of closure).

G

Thanks. Until I saw this thread, I wasn't at all concerned. In fact, I was celebrating the great deal I'd found.. 15€ less than the train and hours less time.
:)

Just booked AZ. Thanks!

Hard to grasp how any airline could operate LHR-FCO for USD 77 per leg, of which USD 63 is supposedly taxes, leaving USD 14 for the "fare paid".

Hence the topic of this thread...

Hmm not quite, 16$ of that "tax" is YR surcharge which goes to the airline...
And of course there are only that many tickets sold for such a price on each flight.

Because Ryanair flies from Stanton to Ciampino for 20GBP and Norwegian flies Gatwick to Fiumicino for 30GBP.

Do you think these airlines are about to go bankrupt?

Indeed - and I wish AZ could do even a tiny, minuscule percentage of profits normally reported by one of the above mentioned carriers (i.e. FR) :)

G

What about SCL-FCO in early May?