Italy killed Alitalia nine times. Nine restructurings, nine bailouts, nine promises that this time would be different. The airline flew for 74 years. It was profitable for almost none of them.
And Italy kept it alive anyway.
Alitalia launched in 1946 with a British European Airways partnership and a fleet of Fiat-built G.12 trimotors. By the 1960s, it was one of Europe's prestige carriers — Caravelles and DC-8s in a racing-green livery, Rome Fiumicino as a glamorous transatlantic gateway, and a reputation for style that only an Italian state airline could manufacture.
The style was real. The balance sheet was not.
By the 1980s, Alitalia's cost structure had calcified. Unions negotiated contracts that guaranteed flight crew salaries 40% above European averages. Ground handling at Fiumicino was controlled by cooperatives with political protection. Fleet decisions were delayed by parliamentary committees. Every route, every aircraft order, every catering contract passed through Rome's political machinery.
The airline became a jobs programme with wings.
Privatisation attempts started in 1998. Each one failed. In 2008, a consortium of Italian investors called CAI bought the airline for €1 billion, stripped the debt, and relaunched it as a "new" Alitalia. It lost money immediately.
Etihad took a 49% stake in 2014, injecting €560 million. The Gulf carrier tried to impose operational discipline on an airline whose unions refused to accept schedule changes. Etihad walked away by 2017, writing off the entire investment.
The Italian government nationalised the airline again in 2020 during the pandemic. This time they didn't restructure. They dissolved it entirely and created a new carrier — ITA Airways — cherry-picking the routes, some staff, and the Fiumicino slots.
Lufthansa acquired a 41% stake in ITA in 2024, with a path to full ownership.
The Alitalia name is gone. The racing-green livery is gone. The brand that survived nine deaths couldn't survive the tenth.
Fiumicino's most expensive ghost now wears Lufthansa's spreadsheet.