Feature: Information transfer problem at Italy's Alitalia causes discontent among passenger

An information transfer problem at Italy's largest airline Alitalia has increased discontent of some passengers amid a series of recent accidents at the country's busiest airport Fiumicino in Rome, where Alitalia has its hub.

"I bought from Alitalia official website the tickets for AZ 7091 and AZ7090, round trip flights from Shanghai to Rome, operated by China Eastern and code shared by Alitalia," a Chinese passenger named Ge Xiaoyan told Xinhua.

Ge had to wait hours at the Shanghai Putong airport before she was finally able to get on the plane.

"Without any warnings, when I arrived in Shanghai Pudong airport I was told to wait until all the other passengers finished their check-in procedure to see if there were seats left for me, because the operation carrier China Eastern had not received my order information from Alitalia until the last minute," Ge went on saying.

"Before my journey from Rome to Shanghai, I met the same problem and was even told that the tickets were sold out, but I was not on the boarding list of China Eastern, that means I had to wait for a seat until the last minute to see if any passengers quit the flight or came late," she recalled.

"Fortunately some passengers from Madrid who planned to transit to this flight came late, and I finally got a seat to go back," Ge said.

"I cannot imagine what I could have done if I hadn't gone back in time, because I had very important work to do the day after arriving," she told Xinhua.

Ge stressed she did not see any warning information of this kind of risk when she bought the ticket, neither did Alitalia told her about the situation before she went to the airport.

"I can never forget the anxiety and anger during the two hours I spent in front of the T5 check-in desk, and I do not hope to meet similar difficulties in the future," she concluded.

Ge's case, however, was only one amid various similar cases reported to Xinhua during this summer.

China Eastern Rome branch General Manager Chen Xiao explained to Xinhua that "sometimes passengers meet this kind of problems, because we cannot receive passenger information from Alitalia."

Two possibilities exist, Chen went on saying, probably their order systems are not compatible well and there is bug in information transfer.

"Usually the operators add their information after our own passengers finish check-in, but if our tickets are sold out especially in July and August, we cannot add names because we have to make certain the seats for our own passengers, which may cause the risk that clients who buy the tickets from Alitalia cannot get on board after waiting for hours," Chen said.

"And we do not exclude the possibility that Alitalia has oversold the tickets, which is an action not permitted for marketing carriers according to international regulations," Chen added.

"We regret the inconvenience experienced by some of our guests," an Alitalia spokesperson told Xinhua.

"First of all we want to point out it is not an oversold issue, but a technical problem related to information transfer in reservation systems," the spokesperson added.

"We are working on it and the bug will be fixed by the mid of August," the spokesperson concluded.

The disruption came amid accidents occurring one after the other at Fiumicino, where a fire at Terminal 3 in May caused an estimated damage of 80 million euros (nearly 87 million U.S. dollars) to Alitalia.

Last Wednesday a fire in a nearby green area blocked Fiumicino for hours, before a blackout at the airport lasted some 20 minutes the next day. In addition, more than 60 Alitalia flights were canceled at Fiumicino at the end of July because of a strike called by pilots and flight attendants.

The accidents and havoc during the summer vacation travel peak period caused major air traffic disruption and passenger discontent, with hundreds protesting and some even feeling faint at the airport.

About 50 percent of the total number of flights in Fiumicino, which had nearly 39 million passengers in 2014, is flown by Alitalia.

Over the past years the airline, a national symbol for decades, risked bankruptcy. Today it is a private company, with 51 percent of shares owned by Italian shareholders and 49 percent owned by Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates.

Alitalia has recently enhanced routes as well as plans to link Italian cities to big countries in the Far East and Africa, unveiled its new brand and aircraft livery and announced product upgrades across all classes of service on its international fleet.

As part of its 2015 summer schedule, Alitalia flies to 102 destinations, including 27 Italian and 75 international destinations, with a total of 164 routes and about 4,500 weekly flights. Endit