Evaluation of the Current Status of Alitalia Essay

Evaluation of the Current Status of Alitalia - Essay Example Correspondingly, this report intends to examine the prospects of Etihad Airways which has started to examine the possibility to buy a majority/total stake in Alitalia, the Italian struggling airline. Alitalia is a prominent Italian based airline group and one of the leading players in the European airline industry. The group operates under the brand name of Alitalia and offers an assortment of premium services at all levels including the purview of domestic, international and intercontinental destinations. Air One is a subsidiary of Alitalia Group that provides low-cost flights to domestic and international routes. Alitalia is a privately owned group and 75% of its ownership is retained by Italian entrepreneurial and financial world while the remaining 25% is acquired by the biggest European airline, Air France-KLM. The group is also the member of SkyTeam alliance and has opened transatlantic joint venture with Air France KLM and Delta. The group over the years has been able to secure and distinguish its position amid its customers particularly due to its superior service quality, maintenance, and passenger care. The pool of well-trained employees along with effective operational management has established it as the most punctual airline across Europe. At the same time, the extensive and ambitious investment plan to make its fleet modernize has tremendously facilitated it with attaining greater customer confidence and trust. Apart from transportation of passengers, the company also operates in cargo sector. It has been able to meet the customers’ shipping requirements through the effective arrangement of cargo charter flights (Alitalia n.d.). Moreover, it has the most modern fleet of 132 aircraft. The company’s financial health during 2012 was worst affected with increasing loss and augmenting debt. However, amid this sluggish performance, the market share of the group across all routes continued to st ay stable at around 22.6% (Alitalia 2013).