It’s up in the air and it is still flying and … will keep on operating. It’s so good to be right sometimes! I was right when I had said that this company would not get busted because there could have been too many bad things to come after the “dead” of this airline-company.

And the Alitalia workers knew it too. So they played until the very end was very close. In this way they the change to get as much as possible out of the new investors, and to be able to get better contracts and less job cuts. It was risky, it could have been tricky … but in the end this is the way that country is going: up to the limit. When that limit is reached they are trying to find a solution. Most of the time they are finding it.

Photo from AP Photo by Andrew Medichni. Via.

Anyway… I salute the new CAI (Compagnia Aerea Italiana) with a new banner on this blog, with an Alitalia ticket to Napoli (via Malpensa, and back via Rome) for next week… and with a “pax” of Prigat/Cappy that mr. Popa (a coleague) has to “pay” in December! Why at that time? Because we made a bet: I said the company will not colapse till December, he said it will!

The short story with what is going on about Alitalia:
- the four leading trade unions – CGIL, CISL, UIL and UGL – agreed with a new contract on Wednesday
- the pilots union agreed on Friday night with the new contracts, were the commandants will get the status of “managers”; they also agreed on less job cuts.
- on Saturday the cabin staff is still negotiating, with discussions set to be finished till Monday at noon.

What are the plans in the near future:
- if all agreements are established till Wednesday, Thursday the company will be split in two: the good part (civil flights operations – including slots, ticketing/handling/Atitech) and the bad part (cargo operations and some other assets of the company).
- there will be the fusion of Alitalia and Airone (the segond biggest operator in Italy) under the name of CAI, but it seems the company will use the Alitalia name and logo.
- the new company will operate under the temporary flight license till October 15th.
- there is also some interest showed by Lufthansa and Air France, that want to participate with 10 – 15 % each in the new company.

The most difficult part:
- getting a new flight license from Italian aeronautical authority – ENAC – till October 15th. (But this thing will get fixed in the Italian way ).

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George was writing that Alitalia had some flights suspended this week between Romania and Italy. He is also telling a very hard to believe story: that the company was paying the handling agent cash for the services. This is very hard to believe that a company will let so much cash to the captain, pilots or crew members to pay for handling, food and re-fuel of the aircraft. There are contracts that the airlines are signing with the handling firms… and they choose some services and they pay for those services through bank transfers once in a while. If the company do not have money to pay at a certain point there can be negotiations for paying the services in rates or once at all but at a later date.

George was also saying that there were six extra crew members that should have remained in Bucharest till next Monday (this was happening Thursday). No airline in the world (especially one that has problems with the cash) will pay four nights in a four star hotel for their crew members.

So those six crew members were for the plane that will have arrived at midnight, and was supposed to live in the morning. The crew arriving at midnight would leave next day on another flight, after spending a night resting. With the company decided to cancel the evening flight, and the midnight flight (and also the morning flight) it was normal that the extra crew to fly back to Italy. What is not clear… is why they left with the plane empty.

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