U.S. legacy carriers should be very afraid of Air Italy. The Italian airline is doing so well it has announced it will halt service to two U.S. cities and one Canadian city this winter. Were you saying something about subsidies?
Air Italy is the only carrier to serve Los Angeles and San Francisco non-stop from Milan. Even so, U.S. carriers accused Qatar Airways of bolstering a carrier that no business “stealing” American jobs. Yes, that argument was made with a straight face (see below). But there’s a small problem: Air Italy has announced it is suspending service to Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Toronto this winter. So much for the “subsidize at all cost” theory…
> Read More: Qatar Airways Blasts U.S. Lawmakers For Air Italy Criticism
> Read More: U.S. Secretary Of State Looking “Very Closely” At Qatar-Air Italy Deal
Air Italy Will Threaten Jobs In Africa and Asia Instead
Air Italy will abandon these North America destinations for “counter-seasonal” destinations including:
- Maldives
- Mombasa
- Tenerife
- Zanzibar
Sound the alarms in the Maldives, Kenya, Spain, and Tanzania! This new service will complement existing service to:
- Cairo
- Dakar
- Accra
- Lagos
- Sharm El-Sheikh
In order to optimize schedules, Air Italy will also park aircraft overnight at:
- Cagliari
- Catania
- Lamezia Terme
- Naples
- Palermo
- Rome
This will allow for optimized connections via the carrier’s Milan Malpensa hub.
Air Italy Chief Operating Officer Rossen Dimitrov stated:
Repositioning our aircraft to the outstations overnight, we will now be able to offer enhanced connectivity to our international destinations and better timings for those coming to Milan for business or leisure.
In North America, service to Miami and New York will continue year-around.
CONCLUSION
So Air Italy is further scaling back its “attack” on North America. That’s a sad loss for West Coast residents like me…
As Gary Leff from View from the Wing wryly noted,
At some level if a US airline cannot compete against an Italian one, a ‘government-controlled’ one no less, they probably shouldn’t be in business.
Amen to that…
But some nice new routes to some cool places!
Look, Air Italy’s cancellation of its planned Chicago route before it even started and scaling back of San Francisco and Los Angeles service do not appear to be the work of a carrier that has no concern for profit. When you throw in cuts to Bangkok, Delhi, and Mumbai, if anything, Air Italy and Qatar Airways should be embarrassed….
> Read More: Air Italy, The Clone Of Qatar Airways
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