While Alitalia seems to be one of the dud investments of Etihad, they don’t seem to be getting over with the part which is called consolidating their position. As a result, the airline is returning to India with a flight to Delhi after 9 years of shutting down the route.
Alitalia will return to Delhi with a daily flight from October 29, 2017, flying an A330-200 to Delhi every day as per the following schedule:
AZ768 FCO1440 – 0240+1DEL 330 D
AZ769 DEL0440 – 0900FCO 330 D
Alitalia has a 3 class configuration on the route and offers a Business Class, Premium Economy & Economy Class in this sector. Of course, Alitalia made a slightly lousy video with stereotypes to introduce India to their network.
Italy – Delhi is not an easy market to operate in. Jet Airways operated the route between Milan & Delhi for a few years and shut it down. Now, Air India operates on the route between Milan/Rome & Delhi with a Boeing 787-8.
Bottomline
The addition of new players to India always makes it more interesting. I’m not sure how many people are directly going to Rome from Delhi, but if they were going from another part of India I’d see them change on Etihad maybe and not via Delhi.
What do you think about the launch of the new route to Delhi by Alitalia? Do you think they have the resources to spend on new route development right now?
People will fly with them. After all its a direct flight and even more, Alitalia has competitively priced its flights to Delhi, even cheaper than Etihad’s connecting flights. The airline must have done some deep research before announcing the service. After all no one’s a fool to launch a direct daily flight. Every other airline starts with a 3/4/5 weekly service, especially in case of India.
Will Alitalia survive till then?
I think it was Milan Delhi route which jet airways operated and not Rome ?
@Aniket, thanks for correcting.