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joining me Simon Calder for the latest on travel and destinations from the Green List and the travel desk of the independent.

Today, Alitalia is dead. Long live, the new Italian airline ITA, which looks remarkably similar.

Of course, this podcast is completely free, as is my weekly travel email. Do sign up at independent.co.uk forward slash newsletters.

On Thursday evening, flight A.Z.1586 from Caliari in Sardinia was due to land at 10 past 11 at night

at Rome's main airport Fumichino and that marked the end of seven troubled decades for the

Italian national carrier. Or did it? Well, at

Italia, like many European airlines, was started up after the Second World War. Every country in

Europe wanted an airline. They were prepared to pay whatever it cost. Now, gradually, most of them

have been weaned off state aid, Air France,

Lufthansa, KLM, but of course they've gone back for a few billion euros during the coronavirus

pandemic. But Alitalia has made losses due to generous labour contracts because the unions knew that the government would

always cave in, overstaffing, ditto, and the Italian taxpayer made up the difference and they

have just been making money incessantly, although there is a rumour in a well-known online supermarket that

they actually turned a profit in 1998. But immediately after that, aviation in Europe became

much more liberal, Easy Jet and Ryanair offered low affairs, more reliability, and

Italy was losing money.

At that stage, you might have expected it to fold, but it couldn't or it didn't.

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