Alitalia joins transatlantic joint venture

Italian carrier Alitalia will join an Air France-KLM and Delta Air Lines joint venture that shares revenues and costs on transatlantic routes, giving the alliance access to Europe's third biggest market, Reuters reported.

The airlines said the addition of Alitalia means the venture represents about 26 percent of total transatlantic capacity with annual revenues of over US$10 billion.

Alitalia, in which Air France-KLM holds a 25 percent stake, joins as of April 1 as part of an agreement running to until at least March 31, 2022.

Loss-making Alitalia went bankrupt in 2008 after years of struggling with strikes and inefficiencies and was relaunched as a private airline by Italian investors last year.

It had a difficult rebirth, grappling with low occupancy rates and flight delays that prompted a barrage of complaints. But the airline's performance in the first half of the year showed strong improvement from a year earlier, with revenues rising 10 percent.
(Source:www.cargonewsasia.com)