Alitalia will resume from 2 June the non-stop Rome-New York service, direct flights to Spain (Roma-Madrid and Rome-Barcelona) and non-stop flights between Milan and southern Italy. The Airline will operate 36% more flights compared to May, flying on 30 routes to 25 airports, including 15 in Italy and 10 abroad.

In detail, from Milan Malpensa airport, where the Airline will carry on its operations until the reopening of Linate airport, Alitalia will operate, in addition to the 8 daily services with Rome Fiumicino, two daily flights to and from Bari, Catania and Palermo (except for any extension of the restrictions on air transport to and from Sicily currently in force) and 4 daily flights to and from Cagliari, Alghero and Olbia.

From Rome, after having already increased services with Cagliari (from 4 to 6 flights per day), beginning tomorrow, 21 May, Alitalia will increase its flights with Catania and Palermo (from 6 to 8 per day) and in June the Airline will connect its hub in Rome Fiumicino airport with Alghero, Bologna, Bari, Genoa, Lamezia Terme, Milan, Naples, Olbia, Pisa, Turin, Venice and, abroad, besides New York, with Barcelona, Brussels, Frankfurt, Geneva, London, Madrid, Munich, Paris and Zurich.

For the third quarter of 2020, Alitalia expects to increase its activity at about 40% of what was planned before the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Flight offering will increase according to the trend in demand, which is already recovering on some domestic routes, and benefiting from the progressive abolition by foreign countries of restrictions on flights and passengers from Italy, as well as from lower disincentive guidelines for travels to Italy.

During June and July, Alitalia will also continue cargo services with China which have allowed to import so far over 70 million of protective face masks and other medical supplies (such as respirators, safety gloves, protective glasses and lab coats) necessary to manage the Covid-19 emergency. Besides the 15 services operated between March and April and the 24 flights that will be operated in May, the Airline has scheduled 25 further cargo services for June.

Alitalia also continues to organize special flights, in coordination with the Crisis Unit of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, even operating to and from airports not usually served by the Airline, in order to repatriate Italian citizens still stranded abroad. The Airline is organizing new special flights with Argentina for the next few days.

All passenger flights are operated with the aircraft capacity more than halved, in order to comply with the provisions of the Italian law on social distancing on board aircraft.

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Alitalia has never suspended its flight operations ensuring an essential public service for travelers and operating, on average, more flights than the main European airlines, in particular the low cost carriers. Despite the need to adopt a limited flight program, in April, for instance, Alitalia operated about 10% of flights compared to the same month of the previous year, against an average of 6% of flights operated by the main European flag carriers and about 2% of flights operated by no frills airlines.

This trend has continued also in the first 15 days of May when Alitalia operated about 12% of flights compared to the same period of the previous year, against an average of about 7% of flights operated by the main European flag carriers and about 2% of flights operated by the main low cost airlines.20200520 Alitalia will resume direct services to New York, Spain and from Milan to southern Italy in June.