Alitalia bankruptcy??

The Ryanair deal fell through. I heard today that the Italian government was going to step in and throw some more money at Alitalia again. I bet we have not heard the last bit of drama.

I'm sure others here with more knowledge of the history of Alitalia and a better sense of current Italian politics would have a better basis for making predictions (Roberto?...) but if it were me, I'd find another way. If I had booked tickets on Alitalia I'd be worrying about that until my Alitalia flight had landed and they let me off the plane.

www.skyscanner.com
This site is good for one-ways on budget airlines. It shows Ryanair with several flights a day in the same price range as Alitalia. Despite its recent massive scheduling mess, Ryanair is Europe's biggest no-frills carrier and certain to still be flying five months from now. Whether there might be schedule changes between now and then is impossible to say.
The skyscanner site hooks directly to Ryanair's sales site.

The Government gave another bridge loan (to be repaid by Sept 2018) to extend the sale process to April 30, 2018.

Alitalia will not go bankrupt anytime before the 2018 national election (which will be held probably in April, but no later than 20 May 2018). Of that you can rest assured.

As a matter of fact, it will either be sold, or the Italian politicians will find some way, no matter how legally compliant with EU rules, to keep it alive. There will be an Italexit before the EU will force the Italian politicians to make it close. Half of Alitalia's employees are Rome's politicians' friends and family.

I'm wondering the same thing since I want to take the South of Italy tour in May 2018 and Alitalia has non-stop flights between Boston and Rome. This past summer we went on the Best of Europe tour and flew Air France to Paris and Alitalia home Rome and Alitalia was by far the better experience.

No Roberto, bankruptcy has been filed, so Alitalia is bankrupt. It is not the first time, and each time there has been a bail out. If I had tickets in the next month or so I would not worry. Lufthansa and others are bidding for the assets. So, this may end well. But, I for one would not buy tickets on this failure of a carrier.

Alitalia operates under a peculiar proceeding of Italian bankruptcy law called AMIINISTRAZIONE CONTROLLATA (Controlled Administration)
Here is a brief description.
https://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amministrazione_controllata
This is the text of the law
http://www.altalex.com/documents/leggi/2013/03/29/legge-fallimentare-dell-amministrazione-controllata

Although there are some similarities with Chapter 11 (Reorganization) of the US Bankruptcy Law, however the law is not the same.

With the uncertainty of the situation, I would be looking at other airlines.

I would not call you crazy, just someone with a high risk tolerance

I read today that Lufthansa is looking at purchasing Alitalia. Few other details at this point, though.

If the OP intends to purchase the ticket for March, it is safe to do so.

The deadline for the firm offers was extended to April 30, therefore nothing will change before then.

After April 30 the more likely outcome is the sale of the company in whole or in parts.

Lufthansa is interested in buying the aviation portion, but not the ground services. The preference of the Italian government is the sale of the company in its entirety, without splitting the two parts (aviation, ground services, including bag handling), but if not possible it will be split.

Caveat emptor.

Thanks everyone! As always, this forum is a wealth of knowledge and helpful info!!

Just flew Alitalia from Rome to Amsterdam(10/16/17). We found the ground staff to be friendly and helpful. The flight itself was crowded, but adequate. I didn't know or get the impression that their was anything a miss with their finances. We did have to pay both for our flight and then separately for our seats.
Would I fly them again? If I had to. Might look for another carrier as there is no shortage of low cost carriers in Europe. The flights are short in duration, so being cramped isn't as intolerable as on a International flight.