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Ciao, Alitalia. “The Pope’s Airline, Alitalia, to Fly Last Flight”

Soumis
 
Alitalia may have had its faults, but how many airlines can claim to have been the “pope’s airline” for over five centuries? (www.nytimes.com) Plus d'info...

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kevinkeswick
Kevin Keswick 4
Sad to see it's demise if for no other reason than that it had one of the most iconic and elegant liveries in the Airline business. The successor airline - ITA - bought the rights to the Alitalia brand so I suspect we will see the livery revived on the ITA fleet - the ITA livery is very uninspiring so I suspect it is just a placeholder and soon will will see the old familiar livery. Be stupid for ITA not to use the Alitalia brand since it contains so much value. Some things cannot be improved upon.
PatrickChevallier
I reasd somewhere that they don't intend to use it. they probably bought it so no one else could own it.
azuresc
Lanny Word 1
Yeah, mainly to use the website to direct traffic to the new site.
mikehe
When SABENA went bust in 2001, the successor SN Brussels airlines went for a different livery. However, the SABENA livery was a good recognition point for the local populace in former Belgian colonies in Africa.

But I rate "SABENA" as the best ever abbreviation ("Such A Bl**dy Experience, Never Again").
Second only after the airline of Honduras, SAHSA ("Stay At Home, Stay Alive") which we were fortunate to have "experienced" in the 1970s.
evanstl
Terry Evans 4
It's abundantly clear by paragraph 5 and 6 this is satire!!
patpylot
patrick baker 8
for 500 years of papal careful transportation, Alitalia sure had its ups and downs, bumkpy landings and turbulence. But they , no matter how hard they sought to remedy their misfiring public reputation, could never shake the union troubles, the mechanical faults, the overstaffing and now they are no more.We legions of passengers will now need a new term of exasperation, because "Alitalia" is kaput, no more, a dead parrot of an airline. Thanks for the memories of fully marble craft, luxury service (at times) of the hometown airline of Rome and Vatican City. We passengers got frequent clear examples of bad times that the Pope never saw, sitting on his throne in first class. Goodbye to the thousands of excess employees, who had perfected sitting around doing nothing and sitting around blending into the walls and floors doing nothing. SO long to the cabin staff, lovely ladies and gents strolling softly about, as if auditioning forTV weatherperson slots, nary a coke or bottle of water anywhere nearby. The race to the bottom for airline on-time performance and financial incompetence has lost its shinng star. The new airline, looking much like the old airline, has very little to surpass.
PatrickChevallier
The most hilarious piece I read on the internet in a looooong time!
LeanderWilliams
Did the pope have a flying machine before the invention of the airplane? Alitalia has been around for 500 years?
DTBMF
Daniel Gless 1
Alitalia used Archangels back in the day. St. Michael was the head union guy.
frager
Gerry Ward 2
I really can't be sad. The worst flights I've flown were on Alitalia. Snarky crew, crappy food and pilots, who were above everyone else in their own minds, who never made an announcement. Over Montreal en route FCO-YYZ we dropped thousands of feet. Flight crew hurt, no announcement, just ignore the passengers. Hopefully the new carrier will be better, but I will wait a while to see how they are doing before I book on to them.
df1sp
HP Baumeister 2
maybe Columbus actually flew West???
boyds2
Stephen Boyd 1
I wonder if the vatican actually paid the full going rate for papa's travels.
ChrisCollingwood
Directly copied from the By-Line of the article
"...By Christopher Buckley

Mr. Buckley is a novelist and humorist...."
So this is more likely a spoof piece?
eesteve
Never knew it ! Never Flew it ! Alitalia Blew It ! ( Please translate to Latin)! Grazie !
robertodemartino2000
Alitalia
Always Late In Takeof And Late In Arrivals. 🏦
A6SEA
Bill Butler 1
Well, it seems like 500 years ago that I flew them from Rome to Catania. People everywhere, even s crate of chickens. The last guy aboard sat in the engineers seat. And the landing! I thought we were landing aboard the Carrier!
toscanaccio
jpaul Falleni 1
Unfortunately for ALITALIA, the Italian government did not pump into their budget 5 billion dollars like the french did to Air France.
Quirkyfrog
Robert Cowling 1
Wow, so sad that they are ending service. Wow...
dentguy
rich Leone 1
Wow, 500 years! What were they flying 500 years ago??
lynwilliams
lyn williams 1
Brooms!
royhunte92
Roy Hunte -3
5 centuries! Alitalia hasn't been around that long, nor have airlines for that matter.
Typical NYT rubbish.
I'd think more like five decades it 1/2 century would be more accurate.
patpylot
patrick baker 3
read before you post, This was a faux-historical spoof, possibly above your understanding, so read the artice. Then apologize and repost.
royhunte92
Roy Hunte 0
The last sentence should read five decades or 1/2 century.
Fat finger typing.😁
ChrisCollingwood
By Christopher Buckley

Mr. Buckley is a novelist and humorist.
JMARTINSON
JMARTINSON 6
So that's your only beef with the article, Roy? Everything else checks out? Keep up the good work.

"Leonardo da Vinci, whose inventions included the helicopter, parachute, golf cart and cordless electric shaver, presented Julius with what he called Flying Thing (cosa volante), resembling an Airbus A321 and featuring a distinctive green and red tail fin (pinna caudale)"
patpylot
patrick baker 6
you are guilty of posting without reading, or possibly understanding what you were reading.
ThomasFrisch
Thomas Frisch 2
Fat-headed typing, more like.
eesteve
It's a spoof,Roy. And,very funny too !
Budlake
Mike Monk 0
"...The Pope's airline for 5 centuries"
"...the trade journal that has covered papal air travel for some centuries now".
Spot the errors.

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