Alitalia folds.

Italy's bankrupt national airline makes last flight (msn.com)

The former Alitalia ops are now in the hands of the italian company ITA (Italia Trasporto Aereo S.p.A). ITA will continue using the Alitalia brand in all aircraft until the Alitalia name is sold in a public auction.

This is really sad. I flew Alitalia MD-80s a lot when when I was stationed at NAS Sigonella. Catania to Naples or Rome and back, once from Israel to Rome. I can remember the Catania to Naples flight was pretty short, and the flight attendants would push their carts up as we climbed and they were about done serving drinks by the time we started to descend. I always thought they were a class act. And the only repaint I ever did was a FS9 Alitalia Airbus 😞 (No talent there.)

ITA are not taking all of the staff job losses, and the government are taking a stake in the new airline (state aid) something the EU warned the UK it is not aloud to do but others have. 

PS BA bringing the A380 back.

Edited October 15, 20214 yr by G-RFRY

On 10/15/2021 at 10:48 AM, G-RFRY said:

ITA are not taking all of the staff job losses, and the government are taking a stake in the new airline (state aid) something the EU warned the UK it is not aloud to do but others have. 

PS BA bringing the A380 back.

the EU have never abided by the rules.  

do some research on 4th freedoms you see,

or try and start a regular route EHAM,EDDF,EDDM for example and see what happens,  openskies and all that.  they've never played by the rules, ever.

  

Correct me if I'm wrong but I seem to recall the first airliner ever for MSFS was a B373 or perhaps a DC9 in Alitalia livery sans the name.  I'm at that age where I remember things that never happened so I might be wrong here.

But sad that AlItalia is leaving.  Many airlines have left us.  PanAm and Eastern immediately come to mind.

Noel

Ah yes, Pan Am and Eastern. Among my earliest flight memories circa 1980, Pan Am 747's SFO-JFK-FRA and back FRA-LHR-JFK, and then after a week in sweltering summer NYC, an Eastern, most likely L-1011, back to foggy SFO.

I also have some fun memories of Alitalia, not quite as pleasant, but I've always loved their paint scheme. TWA was cool too, I loved the red and white, watching their 747's from my Pan Am 747 window seat, and wanting to get on one of them. As a kid the more plane changes and airline changes, takeoffs and landings, the better. A 48 hour flight from USA to Europe with like 10 stops would have been just fine.

Not just as a kid, but when I was flying as a young man.  One summer when I lived in Pueblo Colorado  working for Air Research on a test vehicle at the DOT Test Track I had to spend most of the summer in Air Research's plant in Torrance.  Every other weekend I got to fly home.  A Continental DC-10 from LAX to DEN and then a Frontier Convair 580 from Den to PUB.

And and on the Friday evening flight from LAX to DEN the stew would ask if I wanted chicken or steak for dinner.  How many of you remember that?  

And when I was in the Air Force crossing the Pacific from Travis AFB to Tachikawa AFB in Japan on a contract PanAm Boeing Stratocruiser with stops in Hawaii and Wake Island.

If only the old meal service in the golden age of jet travel had kept up with advances in airplanes from the B707s and DC-10s to B737s and B787s.

It seems as the technology improves the service degrades.

I vaguely have memories of my first flight.  I must have been 5 or maybe 6 years old.  We were spending the summer in the old family farm in Elberta Michigan.  We flew back to Chicago from someplace in Michigan in a Ford Trimotor.

And my first solo off San Francisco Bay in a Luscombe 8E on floats.

P3D helps keep those memories alive.

Noel