Alitalia cuts 100 daily flights

Alitalia has said that it will cut 100 flights a day through the end of November, due the ongoing labour action by flight attendants and pilots, according to the bankruptcy administrator for the troubled airline.

Some employees at the airline have caused havoc for over a week, staging unannounced work slowdowns in protest of some aspects of a bailout plan for the carrier proposed by a group of Italian investors.

The airline has said that the protestors have been following job rules strictly and calling in sick, slowing down operations, causing flights delays and resulting in the cancellations of hundreds of services.

Augusto Fantozzi, Alitalia’s bankruptcy administrator appointed by the government, told La Repubblica that the workers’ protest was costing the carrier millions of euros daily. The bankrupt airline was already losing around two million euros daily.

Fantozzi added that Alitalia would scrap 100 of its 600 daily flights through the end of November, when it is expected that the sale of the airline will be completed.

Passengers will be reimbursed for cancelled flights, or accommodated on other flights. The administrator urged all Alitalia passengers to check on the status of their flight on the airline’s website.

A spokesman for the airline would not comment on the figures put forth by Fantozzi.

Unions involved in the protest maintain that the carrier is also to blame for the disruptions that have occurred, saying that flights are intentionally being cancelled to save money.

www.alitalia.com