Beleaguered Italian carrier Alitalia may have outlasted Air Italy, but it continues to struggle. Now it will cut two longhaul routes and ditch three widebody aircraft.
Alitalia has been operating in bankruptcy protection since 2017. Nearly three years later, little has changed. As we reported in December, Alitalia loses approximately 2 million Euros per day.
> Read More: Alitalia Loses 2 Million Euros…Per Day
Alitalia Cuts Santiago And Seoul
Citing continued poor performance, Alitalia will slash service to Santiago, Chile and Seoul, South Korea. The 7,380-mile route to Santiago is currently Alitalia’s longest, clocking in at over 15 hours on westbound flights.
Corriere reports that Alitalia loses €8 million on the Santiago route each year. Despite being the sole carrier to offer non-stop service between the two cities, Alitalia was unable to capitalize on higher fares, with average fares stagnant at €600.
Meanwhile, long before the latest coronavirus outbreak, Seoul has been another losing route for Alitalia. Fares averaged only €450/and the carrier loses €12.7 million per year.
Altogether, Alitalia loses €76,000 per DAY on these two routes alone. Over the last two years, Alitalia has lost a combined €47 million on these two routes. Even the bottomless purse of the Italian government has deemed that these two routes are simply not worthwhile.
Alitalia Returns 1 777-300ER, 2 A330-200s
Alitalia has one 777-300ER in its fleet and will return it. Currently, Alitalia pays $675,000/month to rent it. It will also return two A330-200s it is leasing at a cost of about $500,000/aircraft per month. The A330s were leased by Etihad, who will now assume the monthly leasing costs.
CONCLUSION
Alitalia allegedly did better in 2019 than it did in 2018 (though it hasn’t released its full numbers yet). Even so, it remains a basket case. It is no wonder Lufthansa and others is so skeptical to invest.
> Read More: Italy’s Plan For Alitalia Centers On Lufthansa
(H/T: Simply Flying)
Too bad. I did FCO-SCL last December in Magnifica and it was a great flight. If I recall, the flight was quite full at the time.
And now the Coronavirus outbreak in Italy which could end up bringing Italy to a standstill for weeks or months.
The people who really are trying to save AZ must feel like the weakest members of the Donner party.
They’ve been on the brink for years, but I still find it very unlikely that the government will let them fail. I’ve actually enjoyed recent flights from FCO-NRT and MXP-JFK. Other than their mandatory mid-flight break, the FAs have been pretty good and the food and wine are still excellent.
Supposedly. the routes will still be available till April…
How crazy were they to even think about a route like Santiago, when they couldn’t make Sydney/Melbourne work, with their obvious advantages of huge Italian population, plus one stop to Europe via Bangkok.
Excellent article. Is there any word on when these aircraft (especially the 77W) will be leaving AZ’s fleet? I have a trip planned in May on that 777, and I’m curious if my trip will be impacted.
Thanks!
Same, I have a Paris – Roma – Seoul flight booked in July… If it is cancelled, it will be refunded right?
Seriously? Is it that hard to run an airline?
Received an email today (March 6, 2020) that my July Santiago to Roma flight got canceled and to call +39 0665649 for assistance. when I called, there was no “assistance”. The agent simply told me that he can’t help, refused to connect me to someone who could help, refused to give me his name, and simply hang up on me. I bought the ticket on the Alitalia website months ago, so I have no idea what I could do now. Any advice?