Alitalia is not exactly the most popular airline in Italy, and it’s staff do seem the be a belligerent bunch too.

But now Berlusco has stuck his oar in, the Alitalia bunch can be as belligerent as they like, and they are being so as your example of the somewhat irresponsible actions of Alitalia pilots show.

It’s a right old Italian mess, and will not go away, just like the best zombies!

All the best,

Alex

As much as I love Italy, any airline would be fortunate to be anything other than Italian. The staff exhibit the worst qualities Italians ever have. Not only did they stage a wildfire strike, but part of it was that some flights took off, then were deliberately flown slowly, do that by the time they were circling the thus burdened airports, they had burned way too much fuel and of course were in possible danger of running out before landing. Would I buy a ticket on an airline where the pilots would deliberately endanger me to make their point?

Resounding NO! And what was their point? That Alitalia cannot run without pilots. True, but they don’t have to be those pilots, because with the folding of so many airlines in recent years there are plenty available.

I watched an interview with a flight attendant recently. She explained that they couldn’t sign the contract that would save her job because she would not take less money. She offered something about babysitting in there, but basically she was saying the Italian taxpayer should be out of pocket every year so that she could maintain her salary unchanged in spite of the fact that the airline had been bankrupt for years.

Should taxpayers who do not fly pay so others who do can? Why? If Alitalia cannot compete she must go away. The tax support of Alitalia has been illegal the whole time while Italy struggles to just make the standards the EU requires for national solvency.

At this point someone needs to have the guts to fire everyone who was involved in that illegal strike. Who has it? Although everyone on the panel I watched, even head of CISL, said it was illegal and shameful and endangered the legal right to strike, no one stepped up and said fire the b£$%&/ds. And that’s what we need.

I guess I had an opinion!