Italian airline Alitalia goes bankrupt
Rome 20 (ANA) - UAE-backed Alitalia is undergoing bankruptcy proceedings as rival airline Air Italy aims to become Italy's flagship carrier. Previously known as Meridiana, Air Italy is backed Backed Qatar Airways whose CEO said in Milan that a new restructiing plan has been unveiled to make Air Italy a sustainable airline alternative for the people. “Air Italy will achieve global scale in both fleet and network expansion ... We will show that we are the star,” Akbar al-Baker said.
Over the next three years, 20 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft will be added to Air Italy's fleet, the first of which arrives in April 2018. Qatar Airways will lease five of its Airbus A330-200 aircraft to Air Italy "at market prices", al-Baker said.
Beginning from May 2018, Air Italy will add new domestic routes from Milan, while new long-haul destinations to New York, Miami, and Bangkok will be opened by the end of the year. Meridiana's chairman said: "Air Italy has an ambition to reach a goal of transporting 10 million passengers per year by 2022 travelling to, from and via Italy. We expect more than 8 million of these to use Milan Malpensa airport."(ANA)
FA/ANA/20 February 2018------