Italy's First

In for a perfect landing at New York's International Airport last week flew a silvery DC-6 with strange markings painted on its sides: L.A.I. Out stepped the suave, spruce U.S. Ambassador to Italy, James C. Dunn, and black-mustached Prince Marcantonio Pacelli, a nephew of the Pope. They were members of a party celebrating a momentous event in Italian commercial aviation, the first flight to the U.S. by an Italian airline.

The initials L.A.I, stood for Linee Aeree Italiane, which was formed in 1946, when the Italian government teamed up with Trans World Airlines to revive commercial aviation in Italy. T.W.A. and Italy each took a 40% interest in the new company, sold the remaining 20% to three private Italian concerns. As president of L.A.I, they picked personable Prince Pacelli, now 43, a popular, socialite Rome lawyer. As his American deputy they chose auburn-haired Richard Mazzarini, a Rome-born U.S. citizen who had worked for a U.S. airline before serving in the

OSS during the war. Handsome General Luigi Gallo, who was a squadron leader in Italo Balbo's famed formation flight to the U.S. in 1933, and in 1945 became director of Italian civil aviation, was made boss of operations.

Together, L.A.I.'s three top executives quickly organized a number of routes in Italy, bought 16 U.S. war-surplus DC-35, staffed them with able pilots and smart American-style hostesses, lured passengers by a timeclock precision of schedules. In its first year of operation, L.A.I, carried 53,000 passengers; last year, with routes extended through the Mediterranean area (Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Israel, Spain), it carried 98,000, to become Italy's biggest airline. It also piled up a remarkable safety record: more than 5,000,000 miles without a serious accident.

By keeping a close eye on costs (the airline has no headquarters of its own, shares offices with a state-subsidized steamship company), Pacelli, Mazzarini and Gallo are able to undercut the railroads on some domestic routes and still make a profit. L.A.I, has paid a 5% dividend to its' stockholders every year.

Last year L.A.I, got a $4,500,000 loan from the Economic Cooperation Administration to buy three DC-6s for its transatlantic run. The U.S. flights, now scheduled for once a week, will be stepped up to three or four a week when the company buys three additional DC-6s. Said Ambassador Dunn: "L.A.I.'s success is a marked step along the way of Italian recovery."

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