GAC

For an airline which has recently emerged from Bankruptcy and still receives many criticisms, Alitalia has registered a very respectable 85.8% seat occupancy rate during the first two months of its restored service between FCO and LAX. According to official statistics of the Official LAX website, Alitalia carried 20,474 passengers in both directions on its 41 non-stop flights in June and July. That amounts to 250 passengers per flight, out of a maximum occupancy of 291 on the Boeing 777-200ER aircraft used on this route.

Alitalia will maintain five (5) nonstop flights per week between FCO and LAX through the end of October, reducing to three (3) per week from November through March, 2011. The 5 flights per week are expected to resume in April, 2011.

www.lawa.org

www.alitalia.it

bon_voyage

I believe it. Our flight home to LAX at the end of June appeared to be full. Service was good and no problems with lost luggage.

GAC

For the month of August, Alitalia registered a 91% seat occupancy on its FCO/LAX/FCO nonstop flights: 11677 passengers were carried on 44 flights in both directions, resulting in an average load of 265 passengers per flight.

www.lawa.org

According to the website www.airport-la.com, the eastbound flight AZ 621 to Rome has an average flight delay of 24 minutes; 59% of flights have less than a 10-minute delay, 81% less than a 30-minute delay, and 6% more than a 60-minute delay.

Dukey1

Does anyone wonder whether or not there are actually delays that the airline can do little, if anything about?

And just how many people get "upset" because the airline folks try to enforce carry-on rules and try to get passengers to sit down for the push-back.

GAC

One of the reasons that Alitalia registers slightly higher average delays on the westbound (FCO/LAX) flights is because the airline typically waits for connecting passengers arriving at FCO from other Italian domestic airports such as Palermo, Catania, Venice, Milan, Florence, et.al. The scheduled connection time at FCO from these airports is not generous, which leads to delays in the departure of the LAX-bound transatlantic flight.

Jean

I don't interpret the high capacity rates to satisfaction with Alitalia. There is no competition for its FCO-LAX nonstop flight.

GAC

Nor do I. People simply strongly prefer a nonstop flight across the Pond, and often will choose such a flight even from an airline which they otherwise might not be their first choice of carrier.

SAB

Ditto. LAX-FCO on Alitalia is the only non-stop from the west coast to Italy.

Jean

I keep hoping American will reinstitute their nonstop flights between LAX and MXP... My one and only experience on Alitalia was so horrible that I vowed never to fly the airline again, even though it means connections.

rkkwan

Back to the original post. Load factor means absolutely zilch when it comes to performance of the flight. It's how much revenue they can get from paying customers and the cost to operate the flight.

GAC

AA never operated a nonstop LAX/MXP flight! Alitalia did have a nonstop LAX/MXP flight for many years, from 1986 to 2002.

The cost to operate LAX/FCO is steep, as it requires three pilots and two aircraft. By contrast, flights to the East Coast need only two pilots and one aircraft. Also, the vast majority of passengers fly on discounted economy tickets.

travelgourmet

As a point of reference, Delta recorded an 87.6% load factor across their entire trans-Atlantic network. Continental saw 87.9% of their seats filled across the pond. This flight is doing okay from a load standpoint, but let's keep it in perspective. TATL demand was simply very high all summer, across the board.

Guenmai

As for Ailitalia...never again as far as I'm concerned. Had my nightmare with them and if it hadn't been for Delta Milan to straighten the whole mess out of them issuing me a ticket on a flight that didn't exist, I might have been still stuck in Milan, years later. LOL! Happy Travels!

kerouac

Well, the Alitalia that is flying now is a new company created in 2009 from the merger of the old Alitalia and Air One. Operations are controlled by Air France-KLM, the principal shareholder.

travelgourmet

<i>Operations are controlled by Air France-KLM, the principal shareholder.</i>

Alitalia has their own management team and operate as a separate company. AF-KL do own 25% of Alitalia, and have rights to appoint 3 members to the board and 2 to the executive committee, but I don't think it is accurate to say that they control operations.

kerouac

Air France set quite a few conditions before accepting to save Alitalia from liquidation -- such as changing the hub and reworking the schedules.

Jean

GAC, you are correct about AA never having nonstop LAX-MXP service. I totally forgot the stop we'd make in Chicago, I guess because everything always went so smoothly (for a change!). I'll still never fly Alitalia.

GAC

Alitalia's nonstop flights between FCO and LAX are now on winter schedule: only THREE flights per week in each direction (Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday) until the very end of May, 2011, when Monday and Friday flights will be added. The sharp reduction in available seats for this flight outside of the summer months is indicative of the fact that it is patronized primarily by tourists travelling to Italy (or to the U.S.) from June through October. The fact that there are so many more nonstop flights from LAX to northern European capitals such as Paris, Frankfurt, London and Amsterdam, suggests that those flights are much more useful for passengers connecting to other European and Middle Eastern destinations, on a year-round basis.

Without question, travellers from Southern California headed to Rome or vicinity will find Alitalia's nonstop flight to be very convenient, and often preferable to connecting flights.

pppeaches

Yes i agree, i would never fly alitalia. its the pits!

kerouac

I am happy to hear this. As an airline employee who often flies standby, I will be be very happy to fly the new Alitalia without excess passengers.

I have always found their service to be adequate (not exceptional), and I even experienced their new budget service flying from Rome to Cairo recently. People who need to be pampered should indeed avoid them, but people who just want a reliable flight at a reasonable price have no reason to avoid them.