# A Piece of Flying Italy Around the World: The Rise and Fall of Alitalia > For 74 years, Alitalia was Italy's flying symbol. We trace the story of the national airline's rise and fall, from its golden years to its final descent. - URL: https://langandtrip.com.ua/en/article/kusochek-letaiushchei-ytalyy-vokruh-sveta-vzlet-y-padenye-alitalia/ - Language: en - Published: 2025-12-14 - Categories: Travel, Culture, Historic Sites, Italy, Food & Drinks, Relaxation --- Ciao ciao, Alitalia. Italy's famous national carrier has announced that it will stop issuing tickets, starting a countdown of just a few weeks until its familiar red-and-green livery vanishes from our skies for good. The national airline will be replaced in October by ITA, a smaller company with a different logo. But the airline that once carried Italian pride, style and cuisine (not to mention the Pope himself) to every corner of the planet will soon be gone. While the disappearance of Alitalia may stir a sense of loss in many Italians, it comes as little surprise. The airline spent its final decades on the brink of collapse, as authorities scrambled to strike rescue deals with investors and other global carriers. "Every time, it managed to save itself, though the only result was to prolong the agony a little further," says Giovanni Orsina, director of the School of Government at Rome's LUISS University. Founded 74 years ago, Alitalia, which Italians once called "freccia alata" (or "winged arrow," a nod to its speed), is now gone for good. The tails of its aircraft bore a popular logo shaped like a large letter 'A', formed to look like an aircraft wing and painted in the colors of the Italian flag. Alongside its cuisine and its car brands, it was perhaps one of the most recognizable symbols of Italy abroad. When Italian families returned home from a long journey and stepped aboard an Alitalia plane, where a flight attendant finally welcomed them with a warm "buongiorno" and served steaming spaghetti in tomato sauce and a Milanese cutlet for lunch, it felt like coming home. To pass the time, passengers could read Italy's national newspapers. ## A Papal Blessing ![](https://test.langandtrip.com.ua/wp-content/uploads/de_import_uploads/june-article-image-199-1-2025.jpg) Alitalia took pride in Italian style and food. In the 1950s, its flight attendants wore elegant uniforms designed by the fashion house Sorelle Fontana. In the years that followed, an impressive roster that included Delia Biagiotti, Alberto Fabiani, Renato Balestra and even Giorgio Armani created stylish outfits and comfortable seating. The hot Italian dishes served on board sometimes made the airline a favorite among international travelers. Duty-free shops sold luxurious Italian perfumes, watches, scarves and ties. In those less enlightened times, men returning from a long flight would bring home the latest boutique goods for their wives. The airline even had the blessing of religious authorities. From 1964, it regularly served as the Pope's official airline, with the size of the aircraft varying depending on the distance of the flight. The plane carrying the Pope is usually known as "Shepherd One" (the papal equivalent of Air Force One), and it is assigned the flight number AZ4000. For Alitalia, it was not all glamour and prestige. Over the past 30 years, the Italian government poured billions of euros into the airline, trying to save it from disappearing and to protect the jobs of its employees. But as Orsina puts it, the airline simply could not cope with global competition or adapt to the changes reshaping the aviation sector. "The fall of Alitalia is the ultimate symbol of Italy's historic, inborn difficulty in grappling with globalization and rising competition," he says. "The travel industry underwent a revolution, while Alitalia was stuck at a dead end, smothered by corporations, lobbyists, unions and political pressure to keep it afloat, despite its problems and the reality of an evolving sector." Alitalia showed little resilience, Orsina says. It simply could not keep pace with the arrival of efficient budget carriers that ran with smaller crews and offered more competitive fares, newer aircraft and a wider list of global destinations. Even though Italy has always been a popular tourist destination, Alitalia's profits kept falling amid growing competition, debts piled up, and bankruptcy followed. The company was placed under emergency administration several times. Many rescue missions were carried out, none with lasting success. ## 'Hitting Rock Bottom' ![](https://test.langandtrip.com.ua/wp-content/uploads/de_import_uploads/june-article-image-199-2-2025.jpg) The aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, which hit the aviation industry hard, dealt Alitalia a heavy blow. But the fatal blow was probably the Covid-19 pandemic. "The authorities kept reviving it, believing that Alitalia simply could not fail. But there are limits, and we have hit rock bottom," Orsina says. "It's like treating a terminal patient. You can try to ease their pain for a while, but not forever. It's therapeutic stubbornness." Alitalia's golden age began in the 1950s, when the postwar recovery sparked an economic boom in Italy, and families could finally afford to fly to faraway places. "Italy was a defeated country recovering from the wounds of the Second World War, and Alitalia came to represent collective hope and national identity," says aerospace industry expert Gregory Alegi. "It conveyed a sense of belonging." With the dawn of the jet age, the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome helped spread Alitalia's fame around the world. The company even created a poster depicting a javelin thrower with an aircraft soaring over his head. "Having a state carrier was a necessity for Italy, an icon of national pride and patriotism," Orsina says. "Italy could not afford not to have one; it was like having a police force and a corps of Carabinieri. Alitalia was an essential accessory of the state, because it was like having a piece of Italy flying all over the world," Orsina says. Alitalia's troubles began in the 1990s, when European deregulation made air travel more competitive and Italy's railways were strengthened, according to aerospace expert Alegi. ## Delays and Cancellations ![](https://test.langandtrip.com.ua/wp-content/uploads/de_import_uploads/june-article-image-199-3-2025.jpg) Things got worse when authorities tried to privatize Alitalia, triggering an endless search for partner carriers and businesspeople willing to help the state solve the problems of the free market. Every partnership failed, while the unions fought against layoff plans. And although Alitalia was loved as a symbol, its passengers often loathed it. The endless crisis eventually led to a decline in service quality, Orsina says, with staff strikes, delayed or canceled flights and fewer long-haul routes. Italians began to grow frustrated. According to recent surveys, most of them believe the state should have stopped funding the company with taxpayers' money long ago. That has not dimmed the nostalgia felt by retired pilots, captains and flight attendants for the good old days, when salaries were high and the job came with perks and prestige. Rosetta Scruli, a former Alitalia passenger who regularly flew to Asia on business, complains that union protests caused her to miss important meetings abroad. "The flight was either late or, often, even canceled," she says. "I spent hours waiting in the terminal, and my luggage was lost several times. It's lovely to fly with a national carrier when everything goes smoothly, but otherwise it can be hell. Patriotism has nothing to do with it; the key factor is efficiency." Scruli also complained that Alitalia flew to Asia via Milan, with no direct flights from Rome. Though little is yet known about the airline's successor, according to Alegi there are hopes that ITA will succeed where Alitalia failed. But since it will be state-owned, at least in the short term, no one expects it to take off any time soon.