Coordinated Network For International Travel Between U.S.,
Europe
Alitalia joined the Air France-KLM
Group and Delta Air Lines in those airline's trans-Atlantic joint
venture on Monday. Launched in April 2009, the multi-party
agreement created a single, coordinated network for customers
flying across the Atlantic, allowing the member airlines to share
revenues and costs on their trans-Atlantic routes.
Through the four-way joint venture, passengers have access to a
trans-Atlantic network which offers almost 250 flights and
approximately 55,000 seats each day, now including 20 daily
trans-Atlantic flights to 5 U.S. destinations from Rome and Milan
Malpensa airports. With Alitalia's addition, the joint venture
represents approximately 26 percent of total trans-Atlantic
capacity, with annual revenues estimated at more than $10
billion.
Rome joins Amsterdam, Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis, New
York-JFK and Paris-CDG as the core hubs of the joint venture, with
additional trans-Atlantic service from Cincinnati, Milan Malpensa,
Memphis and Salt Lake City. Wherever traffic rights permit, the
airlines offer customers codeshare service between the United
States and the European Union, and in many cases beyond, creating
one network for seamless airline-to-airline connections between
points in North America and the European Union.
The joint venture's geographic scope includes all flights
between North America and Europe, between Amsterdam and India and
between North America and Tahiti.
"Trans-Atlantic traffic is the most strategic and competitive
marketplace," said Alitalia's CEO Rocco Sabelli. "We are proud to
be partnering with the world's leading airlines in a joint venture
which the whole industry looks at as the benchmark."
"Delta's partnership with Europe's
leading airlines has been a great success and has enabled us to add
new destinations and convenience for customers across the United
States and Europe," said Delta CEO Richard Anderson. "The addition
of Alitalia to our joint venture will further bolster our ability
to optimize resources, protect revenues and provide more benefits
for our employees and shareholders."
"The trans-Atlantic joint venture has been strengthened by the
arrival of Alitalia, which adds the Italian market, the third
biggest in Europe, to the JV and also gives it access to the
Rome-Fiumicino hub," said Air France-KLM CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon.
"The Italian airline, a SkyTeam member, is a strategic partner of
Air France-KLM with which it already has joint venture agreements
on its Italy-France and Italy-Netherlands routes. It is therefore
natural that this successful partnership should continue with
Alitalia's participation in the trans-Atlantic JV."
"The inclusion of Alitalia is an important step for the joint
venture and will strengthen the position of the other JV partners
in the very important Italian market," said KLM President and CEO
Peter Hartman. "Our customers can now choose between multiple
gateways in the U.S. as well as in Europe, via Amsterdam Schiphol,
Paris Charles de Gaulle and Rome Fiumicino."
Governance of the joint venture will be equally shared between
Alitalia, the Air France-KLM Group and Delta. Alitalia
representatives will immediately join the joint venture's 11
working groups responsible for implementing and managing the
agreement in the areas of network, revenue management, sales,
product, frequent flyer, advertising/brand, cargo, operations,
information technology, communications and finance. Alitalia also
will be included in all joint venture initiatives, including joint
sales contracts, which launched in January 2009.
Alitalia's addition to the joint venture is effective April 1,
2010 as part of a long-term agreement effective until at least
March 31, 2022.