Italian national carrier Alitalia has temporarily suspended services from Rome to Belgrade and Podgorica as a result of falling demand caused by the coronavirus Covid-19 outbreak. The Italian carrier will not be operating flights to its only two scheduled year-round destinations in the former Yugoslavia until the start of the 2020 summer season on March 29. The airline is cancelling flights to 38 national and international destinations. During March, the company will cancel some 100 flights per day. Furthermore, Alitalia noted its load factors on some domestic routes have dropped to as low as 38%, while they previously hovered around 66%.
Air Serbia and Montenegro Airlines will continue to operate flights to Rome. In addition, the Serbian carrier will maintain its services to Milan, Venice and Bologna, the latter being operated from Niš. However, Air Serbia will reduce its number of flights to Italy’s second largest city of Milan from six weekly operations to five. It has also reversed a decision to increase its overall operations to Milan to eight per week during the summer season. “In the coming weeks, Air Serbia will continue to monitor the situation and adjust its schedule accordingly”, the airline said. It added, “The company is taking all necessary precautionary measures and is upholding procedures required in these kinds of situations. Therefore, passengers have no need for concern. As always, the safety of our passengers and crew is our priority”. Alitalia codeshares on Air Serbia's flights to and from Rome.
There are fears Alitalia will be unable to withstand the current downturn in the aviation industry being caused by the virus and could cease operations as a result. The airline has been in “extraordinary administration” since May 2017. Last week, the European Commission announced an in-depth investigation into whether the December 2019 government loan for Alitalia breached European Union state aid rules. The newest inquiry is the second looking into Italy’s help for its struggling flag carrier. Meanwhile, Montenegro Airlines itself has warned the virus poses a “significant risk” on its business in the coming period. “The company’s operational and commercial departments have dedicated their full attention to this problem, primarily to the wellbeing of our passengers and crew but also to protecting the company’s business from the spread of the virus”, Montenegro Airlines said.
Air Serbia and Montenegro Airlines will profit from this. It will help fill up their planes.
ReplyDeleteProfit with 20 passenger's on board?
DeleteFirst of all neither JU or YM are reducing flights to Rome. Second very few people travelling point to point have cancelled plans to visit Rome which is not near the most affected areas. Thirdly both airlines will get at least 50 additional passengers per flight due to this Alitalia cancellation. Fourthly, Alitalia carriers a lot of transfer passengers on its BEG and TGD flights. The cancellation of a number of other flights resulted in fewer passengers on these flights.
DeleteThe fact that JU decreased MXP for only 1 weekly flight and keeps flying to FCO shows that they are not so strongly hit by this situation.
DeleteNow they will even benefit with temporarily withdrawal of AZ
For how long? Not that much. Corona is going to spread in Lazio as well.
DeleteIt will spread everywhere in the world and people will learn to lice with it.
DeleteThis is like when Dinkic was telling the story that Serbia will benefit from worldwide economy crisis. All the airlines are getting hit with the virus only ASL will benefit.
DeleteIt will affect everyone. Some more than others
DeleteThe end is near for Alitalia. Not sure they will survive this.
ReplyDeleteThey will survive this with even more government subsidies!
DeleteGovernment backed loans are now being investigated by the EU. Doubt they can go on line this for much longer.
Delete*like
DeleteNo way Anon 09:33
DeleteFirstly large countries in the EU play by different rules.
And secondly the EU commission just allowed the Romanian government to "loan" money to TAROM.
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_312
Well I definitely don't see anyone buying them anytime more.
DeleteThe Italian government doesn't agree with you. They have given interested parties until March 18 to submit bids. And they announced the call yesterday! LOL.
DeleteAre they serious? Where is the logic? And they give 12 days for bids? Are they crazy?
DeleteWhy, after three years of paralysis, does the government give only twelve days for its potential purchase? Because there is no time, its liquidity is running out.
DeleteMaybe they just want to offload it finally and sell it for a euro to someone.
DeleteNo, the Italian government wants just another failed bidding process that will allow it to again support financially the airline because no private entity will.
DeleteTrue that's probable. But it can't go on forever.
DeleteAnonymous 7 March 2020 at 10:20
DeleteExactly! They are looking for just another excuse to give more subsidies to ΑΖ.
"Romania committed to ensure that, after six months, the loan will be fully repaid, or TAROM will either submit a liquidation plan or carry out a comprehensive restructuring in order to become viable in the long-term. Such possible restructuring would be subject to the Commission's assessment and approval".
Deletehttps://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_312
AZ and OU will be in this situation soon too.
What you didn't say is that they allow different component of AZ to be sold separately. And don't you worry. AZ won't go bust. One thing is AZ and another one is Tarom or OU.
DeleteSelling the company's components bit by bit is the worse possible scenario.
DeleteShame. Despite their brand being in tatters, Alitalia isn't a bad airline at all. They are a great alternative to JU on the FCO route. Their prices are good are competitive, they don't charge for luggage and they have some sort of service on board even on short haul flights.
ReplyDelete+1
Delete"Alitalia isn't a bad airline at all."
DeleteAirlines should be businesses. Alitalia is a dumpster fire in this regard.
"Their prices are good are competitive, they don't charge for luggage and they have some sort of service on board even on short haul flights."
Easy to be competitive on pricing when you are loosing almost 1m EUR per day and your government keeps pumping in money like there's no tomorrow.
You mean they are pumping money in Alitalia so unlike what the governments of Serbia and Montenegro are doing with their respective airlines?
DeleteAnon at 10:50
DeleteNo arguments here.
JU and YM would probably be in an even worse state than Alitalia without government subsidies.
JU and YM are not the only carriers that receive financial help in ex-Yu.
DeleteOthers who do not have even similar route map as JU would already go belly up.
The more subsidies you get the bigger the route map can be.
DeleteLook at Alitalia and Etihad!
Croatia got a lot of money and all they opened is SOF and TGD - each only 3 pw.
DeleteMoney goes somewhere else
Money was not given for opening new routes, it was given for stabilising the compan.
DeleteEven worse
DeleteAnyone know which other routes they have cancelled. You would think the airline would at least put up a list on their website.
ReplyDeleteThis is Alitalia we are talking about. They don't do anything promptly.
DeleteA list would be interesting. Like Korean published.
DeleteIronically Alitalia has launched a very interesting offer, with many discounted tickets up to 40% for traveling in Europe and in the rest of the world.
ReplyDeleteThey need cash immediately. This is not a good sign at all.
DeleteYes, they need liquidity. Eurowings are doing the same.
DeleteAnyone know the loads for:
ReplyDeleteBEG-FCO (JU)
INI-FCO (JU)
TGD-FCO (YM)
I flew INI-FCO last week and it was quite empty. Great for us passengers though.
DeleteI think most of their routes from Nis are empty. Virus or no virus.
DeleteJU cancelled JU560/1 BEG-VCE on March,11th.
ReplyDeleteWe will see what happens with AZ in TGD.
ReplyDeleteW6 MXP-TGD remains unchanged for the time being. They launched their winter 2020 already!
Why? You thinl they won't resume Rome-Podgorica?
Delete*think
DeleteI would say CIA-TGD and not FCO.
DeleteWhich equipment does Alitalia use to BEG and TGD?
ReplyDeleteBEG A320
DeletePodgorica is operated by Alitalia CityLiner.
DeleteSo that's E175/E190.
DeleteGood. Thanks!
DeleteI guess BEG can kiss seven million goodbye.
ReplyDeleteLet's wait and see. I believe the recovery will be strong across all airports/airlines in the world. A sharp spike as there is a sharp decline at the moment. This proved the same with Sars and H1N1.
DeleteI hope they resume both on MAR 29.
ReplyDeleteDepends how the situation evolves. They will certainly be resumed as soon as the situation stabilises.
DeleteIf they don't go bankrupt in the meantime.
DeleteOut of curiosity, how many frequencies for Alitalia have to BEG and TGD during the winter?
ReplyDeleteBelgrade was daily.
DeleteCan't believe Alitalia only flies to Belgrade and Podgorica in ex-Yu. I think years ago they had a much more substantial network.
ReplyDeleteThey used to fly to Skopje and Zagreb in the past. Not sure if there were other cities too.
DeleteHate to be grammar police, but I'm sure 'fledgling' in the first sentence means something very different.
ReplyDelete