Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Italian airline Meridiana changed its name to Air Italy with the backing of Qatar Airways, its new shareholder, aiming to become Italy's flagship carrier as UAE-backed Alitalia undergoes bankruptcy proceedings. Re-branded as Air Italy, Meridian unveiled a new restructuring plan to make of Air Italy "a sustainable airline alternative for the people of Italy", as Qatar Airways' CEO Akbar al-Baker said on Monday at a press conference in Milan. "Air Italy will achieve global scale in both fleet and network expansion ... We will show that we are the star," added al-Baker. Over the next three years, 20 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft will be added to Air Italy's fleet, the first of which arrives in April 2018.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @06:37AM
BA, you are next.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday February 23 2018, @08:50AM
Careful what meals they serve, it only takes one week one prolific farter on each flight [soylentnews.org] to kill the profitability.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Funny) by Bot on Friday February 23 2018, @10:39AM (1 child)
> Qatar Airways' CEO Akbar al-Baker
I guess shouting his name in an airport hall will get you arrested by airport security.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @03:33PM
It's a trap!
(Score: 2) by VLM on Friday February 23 2018, @03:56PM (1 child)
Must be an interesting cultural shock, Qatar Airways is famous for hiring everyone except Qataris and then subjecting them to strict Islamic law in their spare time until they get pissed off and quit, imagine being an Italian stewardess woman and your new bosses policies are all about regulating your social life and sex life and family life to Islamic standard.
I mean, I worked in telecommunications so I know mergers sometimes are crazy especially about HR type stuff like vacations and holiday policies, but its not like suddenly my review metric goals and work rules were strictly Koranic one day. No alcohol buying license if you live in Qatar, no pork, etc. Officially, anyway.
I know of this second hand from my coworker the part time ATP pilot, apparently flight personnel stick together socially and he has stories about hanging out with the Qatar Airways girls. Its apparently the semi-adult version of Catholic School Girls where the authority figure says no alcohol or sex therefore slack the overly tight leash a little then they go completely and utterly wild. Note they categorically won't hire Qatari girls (no married women allowed, BTW) but they do hire like every flavor of the rainbow, so the stories also revolve around all they want to do is get drunk/high/party but nobody speaks the same language beyond pidgin English and pidgin Arabic or whatever Qataris speak, so drunken conversations are reported pretty funny, or so I hear. Nights out are like re-enacting the old "Animal House" movie but set in the Tower of Babel.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday February 23 2018, @09:27PM
Indeed, the star soccer players of the Quatari-owned PSG are forced to live totally sober sex-free lives ...