Alitalia

Now, since there was a corruption, there was what you call a revolution, students, they have to hide or they got to go.

Now, I got that ticket, Alitalia.

And

then I got $30.

There are many.

Ryanair, I think Alitalia.

There's one called Volotea and a bunch of other sort of cheaper airlines.

There are three airports here, so there's quite a lot of choice.

Yeah.

And like, I want to like, you know, as a Roma fan, my dad worked for Alitalia.

Okay.

And there was a direct link with Alitalia and Juventus.

And my cousins lived in Brescia.

So...

And parts were manufactured in Italy.

And then the car was brought over on Alitalia airplanes and final assembled in Michigan or whatever.

The point was is that in 1989, 1990, 1991, they were selling this Italian design, partially made performance car.

um and who was buying it we needed we had to do market research for a client and it turns out it was trades people they had a lot of money and they loved the car and the car at the time was probably 55 000 you can adjust that inflation accordingly way way up but we all realized these folks are making good money and they have disposable income to buy a performance car.

Do you like them? Do you use them?

i do and i do and i don't so here's the thing i think an airport lounge is fabulous it's a good uh haven if uh you have access and you don't have to pay for it right so let's like take like united or you have one of their credit cards or american express if you have a platinum card should get you into most airport lounges just by showing your platinum card So that being said, years ago, Pan Am, Alitalia, when I traveled with my dad, if you had a first class ticket, you were welcome to use their first class lounge.

No questions asked, no extra fees.

Whoever was traveling with you came in with you.

My honor of God, I just came from Italy.

I preached a very powerful message and then after the message they gave me Alitalia, they gave me pizza.

This gospel is not pizza message.

Oh yes.

And we mentioned the challenge of labour and different cultural approaches to business.

I would hope, from Lufthansa's point of view, that they show a tactful approach in managing this acquisition at the moment certainly members of tap that i spoke to was suggesting that because it's still a minority there is more certainty there and certainly might that may pacify some of the labor unions but if there was any kind of hint of arrogance or controlling if you like too much by centralization i think that could be a And it's something, if I'm honest, that I was involved when KLM had their first partnership with Alitalia, which was way before KLM ever merged with Air France.

And their first partnership was commercial.

It wasn't even financial.

And I do recall being involved in some meetings there where KLM took a rather heavy-handed approach to the Italians.

There were very many good people at the time, I remember, in Alitalia.

But there was a bit of teaching them how to do business.

I mean, yes, Alitalia had, as Italy still has today, a lot of political complexities, but that didn't necessarily tarnish the capabilities of people in the organization.

hello everyone and thank you for joining us for window seat our aviation week air transport podcast i'm air transport world europe and africa bureau chief victoria moores and i'm delighted to welcome you on board this week i'm joined by air serbia's ceo yuji marek Vue has over two decades of industry experience with a range of European airlines including Malev, LOT, Alitalia and CSA.

For our listeners who are not familiar with Air Serbia, the airline used to be called Jat Airways until Etihad came in as a shareholder in 2013.

Ten years on, in 2023, Etihad exited and Air Serbia returned to state ownership.

And then Joel Crothers, I happened to mention to him that I was flying to Rome that night after the show.

I was catching an Alitalia flight at 11 o'clock.

And at nine o'clock that night, Joel showed up at my apartment with a suitcase and said, I just got a ticket on Alitalia.

And of course, my boyfriend was going to be picking me up in Rome because he was there on assignment for Time magazine.

And so Joel and I went to the airport together and flew Alitalia to Rome.

And of course, the stewardesses recognized us.

And I remember the comment was, what's Maggie Evans doing, eloping or running off with Joe Haskell? And there again, I just thought, oh, isn't that amazing that we're recognized? And then, of course, my boyfriend picked us up the next morning in Rome.

There's going to be approvals that will have to happen with Brussels, uh, as well.

Are we going to see a little bit of a carve-out? Because you also have to look at Lufthansa Group also picked up, uh, ITA, uh, I-T-A, the form- former Alitalia that is also part of the Lufthansa Group.

Very, very early days for that carrier as well.

But what it, what it reveals is you have Lufthansa Group really controlling two major hubs now, uh, really crossing the equator.