Alitalia will drop two of its longest routes at the end of March.
The routes in question are from Rome to Seoul and to Santiago (Chile). The former decision was taken before the most recent coronavirus outbreak in South Korea over the weekend.
According to corriere.it these two routes alone were losing Alitalia around €76,000 per day.
Both routes will end on March 29, but as I noted above Seoul might be dropped earlier depending on events in the coming days and weeks.
Ceasing these routes and redeploying aircraft elsewhere on the network will allow Alitalia to phase out its single B777-300ER and two of its A330s.
It’s also reported that as many as six A320/A321s will be leaving the fleet. These aircraft are deployed on various short- and medium-length routes.
No details are available of which services might be affected.
Returning the three long-haul aircraft will save Alitalia a considerable amount.
Corriere.it reports that the two A330 are leased from Abu Dhabi-based Etihad for the sum of US$500,000 for each A330 per month. The contract for the B777-300ER is US$675,000 per month.
