Alitalia’s $39 Business Class Fiasco

In 2006, Alitalia Airlines accidentally listed a business class fare from Toronto to Cyprus as $39 instead of $3,900. Within hours, more than 2,000 people bought tickets at the mistaken price, and the airline chose to honor the fare, eating about 7.2 million dollars in losses. The costly typo became one of several financial missteps on Alitalia’s slide toward eventual bankruptcy.

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