Moderators: richierich, ua900, PanAm_DC10, hOMSaR
Cathay777300ER wrote:For the past few years there has been a lot of talk about how the ME3 are unfair competition. Weather the are or not depends on if they are making money and not surviving off money from there states. So I was wondering if Alitalia would be unfair competition then. Alitalia in its 72 year history has only made a profit once. It has received at least €3 billion in the last 20 years from the Italian government. So shouldn't Alitalia be the next target in the unfair completion fight?
OSL777FLYER wrote:Alitalia has indeed received a lot of subsidies over the past years. Especially when Berlusconi was in power. The EU should play by the same rules for all.
Estonian and MALEV both went bankrupt because they were forced to pay back money they had gotten from their respective states and that the EU had deemed to be subsidies.
On the one side, AZ should just go bankrupt as it is a poorly run airline with a lot of union problems. All attempts previously to cut expenses has been met with opposition. AZ has also been protected by the state. LH tried to set up a branch "Lufthansa Italia" but were forced to give up.
On the other hand, costs for the Italian government will be huge if the airline goes bankrupt (unemployment benefits, knock on effects to other industries/subsidiaries)
So what to do?
Might end up like Air Berlin. A combination of another large carrier / LCC could take over routes.
flyingclrs727 wrote:So why do the Italians need a state airline. It should go bankrupt, so its carcass can be picked clean. Then there will be space in the market for new airlines to come into the market. It's like Air India but worse. No one wanted to buy Air India, because the new buyer would be required to retain all the employees. New airlines like Air Italy aren't burdened with all the existing bloated payrolls.
Cathay777300ER wrote:For the past few years there has been a lot of talk about how the ME3 are unfair competition. Weather the are or not depends on if they are making money and not surviving off money from there states. So I was wondering if Alitalia would be unfair competition then. Alitalia in its 72 year history has only made a profit once. It has received at least €3 billion in the last 20 years from the Italian government. So shouldn't Alitalia be the next target in the unfair completion fight?
VSMUT wrote:National airlines serve a bigger cause than the inevitable invasion of LCCs would. You can't count on Ryanair to provide year-round service to far-flung regions of Italy, or connecting flights from those airports to the rest of Europe.
Andy33 wrote:And the LCC driven free market means that there are at least some non-stop flights from Italian regional airports to cities elsewhere in Europe year round. The state-subsidised alternative involves compulsory connections in Rome or sometimes Milan.
Cathay777300ER wrote:For the past few years there has been a lot of talk about how the ME3 are unfair competition. Weather the are or not depends on if they are making money and not surviving off money from there states. So I was wondering if Alitalia would be unfair competition then. Alitalia in its 72 year history has only made a profit once. It has received at least €3 billion in the last 20 years from the Italian government. So shouldn't Alitalia be the next target in the unfair completion fight?