Unfortunately for myself, the flight times don’t allow me to go out in the morning and come back in the evening from EDI (from what I’ve checked anyway) – the turn around time is either too short or I’d either have to stay a night. I imagine it would be ok if you’re looking to go away on a trip though 😀

Consortium withdraws Alitalia bid

Alitalia is overdue for years.
As the employees are the biggest problem of Alitalia, you don’t even have to be sorry for them when they lose their jobs.

Seems as though you are right and I quite agree. Alitalia’s employees are bringing the airline down (further), pretty selfish I would say:

A consortium of investors proposing to rescue airline Alitalia has withdrawn its takeover offer, raising fears the carrier may go into liquidation.

The Italian group, called CAI, dropped its bid after unions failed to back the deal before a 1400GMT deadline.

While four of Alitalia’s unions had supported the deal, five had objected because of plans to cut 3,000 jobs.

More here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7622304.stm

Alitalia ‘running out of fuel’

Italy’s national airline, Alitalia, may have to cancel some flights because of a lack of funds to buy fuel, a top official has warned.

Augusto Fantozzi, Alitalia’s bankruptcy administrator, made the comments as he called unions to emergency talks a day after the latest session broke down.

The unions earlier quoted him as saying flights could not be “guaranteed” because we cannot “get fuel”.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7614336.stm

Perhaps those odds do have some truth to them. Though to be fair, we all knew Alitalia has been falling down the steep, slippery path for a while. Hopefully it will be able to be rescued some how….

Trouble looming for XL:

Package holiday firm XL has filed for administration after experiencing financial difficulties, reports say.

XL is the latest travel firm to face financial difficulties as the industry struggles with sky-high fuel costs and an economic downturn.

A Civil Aviation Authority spokesman said the company currently continued to hold a licence to operate as a tour operator and commercial airline.

He said: “It has not been confirmed to us that XL have filed for administration.”

The carrier had already cancelled its schedule of flights to the Caribbean.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7611639.stm

Great shots, good catches with the retro jets

Crash plane ‘was almost swapped’

The airline involved in the Madrid plane crash had considered switching aircraft at the last minute, a Spanish government minister said.

Spanair flight JK 5022 was delayed for about an hour because of a problem with an air temperature gauge.

The aircraft crashed on 20 August, just after take-off, killing 154 people.

Magdalena Alvarez told a parliamentary panel that Spanair had “indicated to the airport the possibility of replacing the plane with another”.

Ms Alvarez, the Spanish development minister, said Spanair “told the airport control centre that it had decided to continue with the plane… which is the one that crashed”.

She was summoned before the Spanish Congress to testify on Spain’s air safety procedures in the wake of the accident.

Spanair has not spoken publicly about having considered changing planes. A spokesman said the company could not discuss what had happened to the aircraft, because the accident was under judicial investigation.

However, it has previously insisted that the gauge problem had nothing to do with the crash.

The Spanish government has promised a full investigation into the crash, which is the country’s worst air accident in 25 years.

Sources close to the investigation, quoted by the newspaper El Pais, say the plane may have lacked sufficient engine power during take-off.

Video footage showed the plane travelled much further along the runway than normal before getting airborne, the paper reported.

Hindsight…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7589113.stm

Actually Ryanair owns a larger share of Aer Lingus now than does the Irish Government. It’s interesting to ponder what they would do if Aer Lingus was in serious trouble!

That may be, but I’m guessing the Government would step in at some point to help save them.

Really sorry to bring this back up! But there is a good reason for it (close it back down if it is inappropriate mods).

There was just an episode of Mythbusters on, on Discovery (5-6pm, 29th Aug 08), where they allowed a single seater, light aircraft to take off ON a large piece of material acting as a moving runway, that was pulled in the opposite direction of the plane as it took off – and matched the speed. The plane took off easily. Their conclusion that a plane cannot take off if on a moving runway……busted.

Sy 🙂