BROKE BUT AMBITIOUS
(Posted 27th March 2018)
While the financial future of the well near broke Alitalia continues to hang in the balance and survival for now is only assured through continued bailouts from the Italian government, has the airline nevertheless announced plans to fly to the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius come October this year.
Planning to use an Airbus A330 on the route does information received suggest the airline intends to fly three times a week between Rome and Port Louis, flights leaving Italy every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday with the return services leaving Mauritius every Monday, Thursday and Saturday.
Previously supported by Abu Dhabi’s Etihad have the Gulf carrier’s owners pulled the plug on Alitalia when it became clear that the perennial problems with unions and not being able to cut loss making routes fast enough drained resources from Etihad, which at the same time ran into similar challenges with Germany’s Air Berlin.
Should in coming months no permanent solution be found – especially after Qatar Airways acquired a major stake in Air Italy / Meridiana – will the future of Alitalia hang in the balance, unless the Italian government can once again convince the European authorities that yet another bailout should be sanctioned.
