Alitalia suspends operations to India - retains staff and landing rights
31 Mar 2008
Mumbai: Alitalia's last flight from India took off from Mumbai on Saturday morning as the beleaguered airline starts cutting back on services to stave off mounting losses. As of now, at least for a few months, there is no prospect of the Italian flag carrier resuming services to these destinations.
Currently, the struggling carrier has no funds to lease aircraft for destinations such as India and China, forcing it to shut down operations to both these countries from 31 March.
Airline officials are calling it a ''temporary'' suspension, however, for the carrier has not given up its landing rights in the country. Neither has the airline shut down its three offices - two in Mumbai and one in Delhi - or laid off its employees.
The Italian government has been seeking to sell of its stake in Alitalia for quite some time and has approved a takeover bid from the Air France-KLM group. The move is awaiting formal sanction from a new Italian government as the country goes to polls.
As for now, airline officials say that the Air France-KLM-Alitalia combine will re-evaluate India operations once the merger is resolved.
