Alitalia Lays off 950+..Etihad's Orders...

Alitalia in a cost-cutting measure following the 49 % investment by Etihad Airways, will terminate 879 ground crew employees, 61 pilots and 54 flight attendants according to Ria Novosti citing a report by the Italian news agency Adnkronos. The cut employees will begin receiving notice on October 31. Previously the beleaguered carrier had already eliminated 700 positions through through resignations or retirements.



In other news, with these employee cuts, Alitalia will also trim its fleet. According to ch-aviation, partner Airberlin will add 14 ex-Alitalia Airbus A320s as it goes to an all-Airbus fleet.

Finally the carrier issued the details about its winter schedule that started on October 26:
On Sunday, October 26, Alitalia’s schedule for the winter season 2014-2015 took effect with validity through March 28, 2015.

The schedule will operate 3,650 weekly flights on 124 routes (7 more than the 2013-2014 winter season) and 83 destinations, of which 26 in Italy and 57 destinations in 41 other countries worldwide.
The main highlights of Alitalia’s winter network are:
• the launch of new daily direct flights between Rome and Marseilles reinforcing Alitalia’s offer between Italy and France, and new service to Skopje (Macedonia) and Marrakech (Morocco) launched in recent months;
• the launch of a code share agreement between Alitalia and Airberlin, second largest German airline, making available 412 weekly direct Alitalia and Airberlin code shared flights between Italy and Germany, Austria and Switzerland, as well as many Airberlin domestic flight and Alitalia domestic and international flights;

• the launch of flights replacing Air One Smart Carrier discontinued service between Pisa and Catania and between Milan Malpensa and Tunis;