tourism-italia.com

Yesterday, Ryanair announced that from March 2009 they will be offering seven new international flights and four new domestic flights from Bologna. Ryanair estimates that these new routes will bring 800,000 passengers to Bologna each year. So good news for local tourism! Ryanair also believes that the flights will support 2,000 local jobs. The new routes include destinations such as Edinburgh, Paris and Bari. Now I’m a big fan of low-cost airlines as they do what they say on the tin: They get you to your destination with no extra frills or costs. So Bologna, here I come!

I have just heard news that Alitalia is to be bought by Air France for the bargain basement price of 138m euros. Now is it just me or is that really cheap for a pretty big airline? I realise that Alitalia has been losing money for a long time but still, is it not worth more? And also how did the airline manage to accumulate such huge debts when the government owns 49.9% of the company? Anyway, hopefully the future of the airline has now been saved and will be able to run for years to come. But I wonder if Air France will continue to run Alitalia under its current name or if it will change it to something more French…..

If you ever fancied going to Poland, then now is your chance. Air One, Italy’s biggest private airline, and the Polish airline LOT have just signed a code-sharing agreement. This is in addition to Air One’s twelve other code-sharing agreements with Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Swiss, Tap Portugal, Aegean Airlines, Croatia Airlines, Darwin Airlines, US Airways, Air Canada, Air Baltic and Air Malta. According to the two airlines, the code-sharing agreement is “developing new flows of tourism between Italy and Poland by offering quality service for the growing demand for business trips and those for religious reasons”. Air One is also interested in buying the Treasury’s 49.9% controlling stake in Alitalia. So hopefully we will soon see a boost in the number of Polish tourists and may I be the first to say ‘hello!’.