From April 10 Alitalia will follow the growing number of airlines offering cheaper fares for passengers boarding transatlantic flights with only hand luggage.
These Hand Baggage Only (HBO) or “light” fares will be available on routes linking Italy with the US and Canada. And it means Alitalia will be falling in line with both Air France and KLM who are also launching HBO fares around the same time. (See Online news, Dec 7)
Air France KLM to offer transatlantic hand baggage only fare
There has been no official statement yet from Alitalia (at least to UK media) so the promotional details are in Italian.
Alitalia’s HBO offerings are comparable to those offered by low-cost carrier Norwegian who is now active in the Italian market.
As one might expect what Alitalia’s HBO offerings resemble those of the existing HBO carriers.
HBO fares are already offered by Aer Lingus, TAP Air Portugal, Scandinavian Airlines and Lufthansa (Scandinavian sales only). Low-cost carriers like Norwegian and Iceland’s Wow Air already have HBO offers.
(Note that sales by conventional carriers may be limited in certain European countries. For example, Scandinavian Airlines does not sell transatlantic HBO tariffs in the UK).
Who will be next ?
US carrier Delta is tipped to follow Air France, Alitalia and KLM with HBO fares. Delta works closely with these carriers and not having an HBO offering would complicate matters (as regards tariffs,flight changes and so on).
And when Delta follows we can reasonably expect all the other majors, like British Airways, American Airlines, United, Lufthansa Group and Virgin Atlantic, to follow suit.
