With Alitalia planning to cut routes outta Malpensa, could Ryanair move its hub to Milano? Seems there’s a possibility, according to an article in the Telegraph.
That could be good. I mean, as much as I might like Italy and Italians, they really can’t be said to be good at running big companies. You don’t happen to be typing on an Olivetti laptop do you? Good.
I mean, even Aeroflot balked at buying Alitalia.
What Italians do well is to bang out small, hand-made things that cost an arm and a leg and do simple tasks better than anything else on the planet—like the Lamborghinis I wrote about yesterday.
In any case, can’t say I’ve ridden Alitalia all that much. I did take a flight to Sardinia from Rome once. I had a window seat, looking out over the wing. Odd thing was, once we reached altitude I looked out and saw that the rivets in the wing were all loose and vibrating inside their oversize holes like Mexican jumping beans on crack. If that weren’t enough, the smoking section was designated on the left side of the airplane, while those of us on the right suffered under the ominous nicotine cloud the smokers produced while worrying if the loose wing would fall off. Once was enough.
Of course, there’s lots to be considered before the deal is done. The unions have to be busted, and Ryanair wants “the fingers connecting planes to the terminals to be removed, so that passengers can walk to the planes.” Yeah, it always feels you are on a crackerjack bargain airline when you’re walking out to your plane in a hail storm…
Plus, they’d have to hire many more people to swipe stuff outta your checked baggage. That’s gotta be time consuming.
(Thanks to Damian Corrigan of Spain for Visitors for the heads up on the Ryanair story)