Alitalia - Società Aerea Italiana S.p.A., operating as Alitalia, was an Italian airline which was once the flag carrier and largest airline of Italy. The company had its head office in Fiumicino, in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital. The airline was owned by the Government of Italy as a nationalized business from its founding in 1946 until it was privatized in 2009. However, it struggled with profitability whilst operating as a private company, including failed negotiations to sell to other private parties. The airline entered extraordinary administration in 2017 following many years of financial losses. The Italian government eventually took back ownership of the airline in March 2020.
Alitalia Savoia-Marchetti SM.95 at Manchester in 1948
Alitalia Douglas DC-8 at Heathrow Airport in August 1960
President George W. Bush walks the red carpet with Pope Benedict XVI. (2008)
Alitalia McDonnell Douglas DC-9 in the 1957 livery
A flag carrier is a transport company, such as an airline or shipping company, that, being locally registered in a given sovereign state, enjoys preferential rights or privileges accorded by the government for international operations.
A Boeing 777-300ER of Dubai-based Emirates, one of the two flag carriers of the United Arab Emirates
A Douglas DC-4 owned and operated by El Al - the flag carrier of Israel - in 1948