Alitalia unions call strike for April 5 to protest cuts

MILAN – Unions at Alitalia on Friday announced an April 5 strike to protest deep job and salary cuts as part of a new plan to relaunch the struggling airline.

Nino Cortorillo of the Filt-Cigl union came out of a meeting with management at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport saying that workers would strike to protest plans to lay off more than 2,000 ground personnel and slash the salaries of flight personnel by 25-to-35 per cent.

“In my opinion, we were not presented with an industrial plan,” Cortorillo told Sky TG24. “An industrial plan includes prospects for the enterprise, which we did not see. Today we were presented with a plan for cuts.”

Unions are seeking to meet with the Italian government as soon as Monday to discuss alternatives for relaunching Alitalia. Media reports have suggested the state-backed investment bank could take a stake and inject much-needed cash into the carrier, but Cortorillo rejected short-term salvage measures, saying the airline’s long-term health needs to be addressed.

The struggling airline was taken over nearly three years ago by Etihad Airlines, based in Abu Dhabi, after being run by an all-Italian consortium led by banks Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo, which retains a 51 per cent stake in the carrier.

The new business plan approved by the Alitalia board this week includes 1 billion euros (dollars) in cost-cutting over three years in a bid to compete with low-cost carriers that have captured nearly half of the Italian market.

The plan envisages a 30 per cent bump in revenue to 3.7 billion euros and profitability by 2019.

Alitalia plans to reduce its narrow-body planes by 20 while refitting the remainder of the fleet with more seats, and introduce services on domestic and European flights that are common to budget carriers, including charges for meals, priority boarding and preferred seating.

A full-service model would be retained for long-haul flights, the airline said.

The news agency ANSA, citing union sources, said the plan also includes hiring 500 in-flight personnel, including pilots and flight attendants, and the addition of eight new long-range planes from 2017-2021, with the planned addition of about 10 new long-haul destinations.

In a separate development, Alitalia cancelled 40 per cent of its flights on Monday due to previously announced strikes by air traffic controllers and in the transport sector. It said flights during morning and afternoon peak travel hours would operate on schedule, and that bigger planes would be deployed to carry as many passengers as possible, both domestically and internationally.