Alitalia sees reversal in ticket reservation trend

While the number of people who booked seats for Alitalia flights declined dramatically over the course of the past few months, the carrier announced this afternoon that this trend has now clearly stopped and that bookings are expected to pick up again within the coming weeks. Bankruptcy very much seemed like a probability earlier this spring for Alitalia, as the carrier was close to running out of money, until the government decided to give it a €300 emergency loan. Airline representatives have confirmed that bookings fell sharply in April, but now appear to be increasing again, as the carrier’s operations seem secure, at least in the short term.

According to figures quoted by the Reuters News Agency, Alitalia reservations dropped by around 26 percent during the month of April, following Air France-KLM’s decision to withdraw its bid to purchase Italy’s all but insolvent national airline. Nevertheless, Alitalia also pointed out that another reason for the fall in seat sales was the fact that the carrier had started restructuring its routes and cutting capacity on some flights. Specifically, Alitalia decided to scale down its base in Milan, in order to build its presence in Rome and this may have led to a temporary fall in reservations. The airline, however, believes that this turned out to be a sage business decision, as the national carrier’s traffic at the Rome airport jumped by 32 percent this past May.

www.alitalia.com