Alitalia leaves SkyTeam on May 21st
Alitalia is reported to leave the SkyTeam transatlantic joint venture on May 21. That revenue stream will now disappear, but Alitalia will be free to pursue its own commercial strategy or to join another alliance or joint venture. All other SkyTeam transatlantic carriers will operate under a newly-created joint venture that now also includes Virgin Atlantic, in which Delta Air Lines owns a 49 percent stake.
It’s been a while since I traveled long-haul with them, maybe back in 2017. I used to take advantage of some very aggressive promotional fares In Business Class, from Rome to Buenos Aires (Ezeiza). The fact that they were SkyTeam allowed me to accrue FlyingBlue miles at a very lucrative rate (200% bonus on some fare classes), and the service on board was excellent.
Currently, Alitalia’s fleet includes 11 Boeing 777-200ER, 12 Airbus A330-200. Stefano Patuanelli, Italy’s Minister for Economic Development, revealed that the majority of the aircraft will be leased and that only nine of them will be kept as owned.
