ALITALIA
(Italy)

After good experiences with the DC-8-40/62 and the DC-9-30, the decision for an aircraft to supplement the Boeing 747 on the lower density routes, especially those to South America, was almost simple. In June 1970, an order for four DC-10-30 plus six options was placed and all aircraft but two were taken up. The first aircraft, I-DYNA, was delivered on February 6th 1973 and placed on the routes between Rome and South America - later this aircraft type replaced the DC-8-62 on other thin long-range routes, as those to Johannesburg and Tokyo. Although the Italian carrier was happy with its Douglas trijets, the airline decided to standardize its long-range fleet to Boeing 747 so that the DC-10-30 left. This decision was primary caused by financial problems (which are almost usual in Rome-Fiumicino), and the airline cancelled an order during the grounding, so that Alitalia became the only (!) airline to do so. Although there were surely a lot of airlines which didn't place any order for the DC-10 although there were short before a decision. Alitalias DC-10 fleet was finally retired in 1986, when the last aircraft, I-DYNE, went to Eastern Air Lines as two others did before. Three other were sold to Mc Donnell - Douglas in exchange for MD-82s, while the other two went to Finnair and PIA. Note that Alitalia used the vocals as end-letters for its DC-10-regs before using the letter "B". Now Alitalia operates a fleet of MD-80, A319/320/321, MD-11, 767, 777 and 747.



Following aircraft were operated by or for Alitalia:

RegistrationAircraftFleetnr./NameOperated from - toWhere is it now?
I-DYNA47861/ 75Galileo Galilei06.03.1972 - 27.12.1982SCRAPPED
I-DYNB47866/ 149Giotto di Bondone19.04.1974 - 27.06.1985SCRAPPED
I-DYNC47867/ 178Luigi Pirandelli18.12.1975 - 12.04.1982 and
11.06.1982 - 29.11.1985
-stored-
I-DYND47868/ 20005.05.1975 - 25.05.1983SCRAPPED
I-DYNE47862/ 88Dante Alighieri21.03.1973 - 15.01.1986SCRAPPED
I-DYNI47863/ 94Michelangelo
Bounarotti
20.04.1973 - 28.12.1982SCRAPPED
I-DYNO47864/ 121Benvenuto Cellini13.11.1973 - 16.09.1982 and
11.1982 - 28.12.1982
SCRAPPED
I-DYNU47865/ 135Gugliemo Marconi22.01.1974 - 28.10.1983-stored-


Additional information about Alitalia and the DC-10:
* http://www.geocities.com/azafleet/dc10.html - Link to an unofficial page in Italian with information about the Alitalia DC-10 fleet
* http://www.alitalia.com - link to Alitalia homepage

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