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Alitalia the Zombie Airline

A bit like some recalcitrant zombie, Alitalia just will not lie down and die.  The stuttering saga of Italy’s national airline wobbles on, and does not appear to be coming to an end.

The undead Airline which dear old Berlusconi promised to save from becoming, horror of horrors, foreign,

is still as strike prone as ever it was.

Heaven only knows how much it is costing Italy’s taxpayers to save the corpse of this behemoth.

The Zombie Loan is Not Good

A European Community commission has declared a 300 million Euro bail out loan, cosily organised by Italy’s government, illegal, even if the bods in Europe appear to be in favour of resurrecting Italy’s beleaguered national airline.  Although the breathing of new life into the Alitalia zombie conditional upon, according to the EC commission, the sale of assets and the laying down to rest of the old company behind Alitalia.

Is Alitalia Still Alitalia?

Actually, it’s not all that clear why everyone is still calling Alitalia, Alitalia, for in theory the airline died a month or so ago.

Still, like the best zombies in the most dire of B-movies, Alitalia continues to haunt Italy and its population, and cost Italians plenty of money in these belt tightening times of recession.

Alitalia – Strikes and Delays as Usual

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Stop reading, start speaking

Stop translating in your head and start speaking Italian for real with the only audio course that prompt you to speak.

Just to remind everyone just how hard it is to silence zombies, Italy’s formerly strike and delay prone national airline, which exists, but doesn’t, went on strike, which of course led to delays.  Oddly enough it appears as though people must still be flying with the zombie.  Who knows who these mysterious passengers are.  Probably diplomats and politicians obliged to fly with the carrier by their political masters.

Even stranger is that Berlusconi won elections with a promise to save Alitalia and ‘keep it Italian’.  In so doing good old Berlusco managed to squash take over talks which were making progress.  What Berlusco omitted to say was that saving the zombie would cost Italy’s taxpayers rather a lot.

Italian Businesses Suffer the Effects of the Zombie

Italy’s businesses are suffering from the effects of the undead too.  Many companies providing services to Alitalia have not been paid.  They risk going bankrupt – no government money to bail them out.

Italians Shot in their Feet?

Italy’s suntanned number one may have gone and shot Italians well and truly in their feet by threatening to do all he could for the undead company, in that those who work for the airline know that they can do just about what they like.  Read more strikes and delays, because there is no way Berlusconi can be seen to fail in his mission to cost Italy’s taxpayers lots of money, save Italy’s flagship airline.

The man detests admitting he’s in the wrong too, as the incident concerning his recent offhand comment on the colour of Obama‘s skin goes to show.

One thing is pretty certain though, this time the zombies will win the battle.

PS My mum was probably right when she said she thought Berlusconi was a fascist.

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