KLM chief financial officer Rob Abrahamsen has given alliance partner Alitalia three months to complete its long-planned move from Milan's Linate Airport to its new Malpensa hub. Should Alitalia fail to meet the deadline, KLM could dissolve the alliance between the two carriers.
Alitalia originally told the Italian Government that its first-quarter performance would fall below expectations if the move was not completed by the end of January.
Italy needs to convince Brussels that concentration of all international carriers at Malpensa will not prove a hindrance to free competition, something which it has so far failed to do. Environmentalists are also lobbying energetically in Malpensa, while Milan airport operator SEA has its own powerful argument against government plans, which would see Linate retained as a terminal for shuttle flights between Rome and Milan.
Such services, it points out, would generate annual traffic flows of just 2 million passengers. Three times that number are needed to break even.
In theory, 236 services were due to have made the cross-city relocation on 15 December, followed by the remaining 230 a month later. With domestic services on the increase, many smaller Italian operators find their operations divided between Linate, Malpensa and Orio Airport, near Bergamo.
Long-standing Malpensa stalwart, Air Europe, which has expanded its own domestic network dramatically in recent months on the understanding that Linate would be closed, is demanding to shift 34% of its flights from Malpensa to Linate. If not, the carrier is threatening to lay off 15% of its workforce. "The continuation of flights to Linate has created a privileged category of carrier, in open and flagrant violation of community rules," claims company president, Lupo Rattazzi.
Italy's second carrier, Meridiana, is also suffering because of the inaction. In the interim, it has asked for permission to concentrate 13 daily flights with Sardinia at Linate, or face having to reduce frequencies.
Source: Airline Business
