Alitalia

Alitalia is the national Italian airline company, part of the Alitalia Group.

Table of contents

1 History
2 Other facts of interest
3 External links

History

Alitalia was founded in 1947, in which year it carried over 10,000 passengers. The inaugural flight, made by the very first plane in the fleet was a Fiat G-12 Alcione, piloted by Virginio Reinero between Turin and Rome. Their first international flight left a year later, travelling between Milan and various cities in South America.

Alitalia Airbus A321.

By the 1990s, Alitalia was carrying nearly 25 million passengers yearly. Today, Alitalia operates out of two hubs in Italy, at Rome Fiumicino and Milan Malpensa airports, serving 200 destinations in 24 countries worldwide.

Recently, Alitalia is trying to choose one of its two cities that it will concentrate into its main hub. Rome's Leonardo Da Vinci Airport and Milan's Malpensa Airport are its two candidates.

Other facts of interest

The Alitalia fleet comprises 181 aircrafts, a mixture of Boeings, Airbus and McDonnell Douglas planes, plus a few ATR turboprop aircrafts for small flights.
The company's ICAO code is AZA 055 and its IATA code is AZ
To date, six Alitalia flights have been hijacked (see Aviation Safety Network report for Alitalia).
To date, only one aircraft incident has been reported involving Alitalia planes (see Aviation Safety Network report for Alitalia).
Alitalia operates three main hubs. They are: Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport in Fiumicino, Italy, Malpensa International Airport in Milan, Italy, and Linate Airport in Milan, Italy.
The Pope John Paul II charters Alitalia jets on most of his international flights