
Paper airline tickets to be dead by May - pg
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/18/they-lasted-longer-than-airline-meals-did/?em&ex=1190347200&en=8a3565c9648481a7&ei=5087%0A
======
pg
Incidentally, I doubt they'd be able to get Alitalia off paper tickets by May.
Italy seems very attached to the concept of little bits of official paper.

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davidw
They should just let Alitalia die, but it's not looking likely... all the
politicians keep conspiring to keep it alive. Here's another one railing on
about keeping it in Italian hands:

[http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Economia/2007/09_Settembr...](http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Economia/2007/09_Settembre/18/alitalia_rutelli.shtml)

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far33d
I've never in my life gone through a more bureaucratic, more inefficient,
slower experience than any flight I've had on Alitalia.

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dpapathanasiou
It's all relative: Greeks would love to have a national airline as "good" as
Alitalia, since they have to deal with Olympic Airways.

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davidw
The problem is that governments should just get out of the way and let the
private sector provide things like air transport. There is no excuse for a
bunch of taxpayers subsidizing other, most likely wealthier taxpayers'
airplane rides with inefficient, bloated companies like Alitalia.

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nostrademons
I really don't think it's a public vs. private issue, because I've been on Air
New Zealand and the service is way, way better than any carrier in the U.S. My
sister has said the same about Qantas.

Really, I think it has to do with communicating a sense of purpose to all
employees, at all levels. If a state airline does that, you have a good state
airline. If a private airline does that, you have a good private airline. In
theory, a strong private sector ensures that firms that don't do this are
replaced by firms that do, but frictional costs in the aviation business are
so large that this often takes decades.

------
emfle
This reminds me of a excellent blog called enplaned that was unfortunately
shut down. Someone made a cache of it at <http://www.enplaned.com/>.

