Alitalia Joins Air France-KLM Group, Delta Air Lines in Industry's Leading Trans-Atlantic Joint Venture
(Thomson Reuters ONE) -
ROME, July 5 2010 - Alitalia, Italy's leading airline, today joined the Air
France-KLM Group (OTC: AFLYY) and Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) as a member of the
airline industry's leading trans-Atlantic joint venture. 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 convenient access to the
world's largest 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 USD.
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.
"Today marks an important milestone in Alitalia's development plan" said
Alitalia's CEO Rocco Sabelli. "Trans-Atlantic traffic is the most strategic and
competitive marketplace. 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.
Such an achievement highlights the valuable results obtained so far by Alitalia,
and further opens-up opportunities for our industrial and commercial growth".
"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.
The long history of cooperation among Air France, KLM and Delta dates to 1997,
when KLM signed a joint venture agreement with Northwest Airlines. Delta, which
merged with Northwest in 2008, signed its own joint venture agreement with Air
France in 2007 following eight years of close trans-Atlantic cooperation. In
2009, both joint ventures were combined into one following the Delta-Northwest
and Air France-KLM mergers.
The alliance of the four airlines, which is enabled by trans-Atlantic antitrust
immunity granted by the U.S. and European governments, has delivered a number of
benefits to consumers over the last decade. Dozens of new routes have been
created as a result of the airlines' cooperation, including Delta's first
service to London-Heathrow from Atlanta, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Detroit and New
York-JFK. New nonstop service has also been launched between mid-sized cities
such as Portland, Ore. and Amsterdam; Pittsburgh and Paris; and Salt Lake City
and Paris.
Key facts and figures on the expanded joint venture
* Nearly 250 daily trans-Atlantic flights
* Almost 500 destinations in Europe and in North America
* Annual revenues estimated at more than US$10 billion
* More than 100,000 employees at Air France KLM
* More than 70,000 employees at Delta
* More than 14,000 employees at Alitalia
About Alitalia
Alitalia - Compagnia Aerea Italiana started operations in January 2009,
following the acquisition of assets from Alitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane, and of
Air One. Today Alitalia is Italy's leading airline, serving 22 million
passengers with its 158 aircrafts fleet, and operating more than 700 daily
flights across a network of 83 destinations. In 2010 Alitalia positioned Air One
as a low fares, yet high quality carrier operating from the Milan Malpensa
airport. Alitalia is a member of the SkyTeam alliance. Further information is
available onwww.alitalia.com.
About Air France-KLM
The Air France-KLM Group was set up in 2004 and comprises a holding company and
two airlines that have retained their separate brands and identities. Together,
Air France and KLM serve an extensive global network structured around their
hubs at Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam-Schiphol. Currently, the group has
a workforce of over 104,000, carries 71.4 million passengers annually to 244
destinations worldwide, and operates a fleet of 594 aircraft. This ranks it
first worldwide by turnover, which stood at 21 billion euros in IATA 2009/2010.
Air France and KLM are members of the SkyTeam Alliance, whose services span the
world. Air France was founded in 1933, KLM in 1919. Full information
oncorporate.airfrance.com and www.klm.com
About Delta
Delta Air Lines serves more than 160 million customers each year. With its
unsurpassed global network, Delta and the Delta Connection carriers offer
service to 369 destinations in 67 countries on six continents. Delta,
headquartered in Atlanta, employs more than 70,000 employees worldwide and
operates a mainline fleet of more than 700 aircraft. A founding member of the
SkyTeam global alliance, Delta participates in the industry's leading
trans-Atlantic joint venture with Air France-KLM and Alitalia. Including its
worldwide alliance partners, Delta offers customers more than 13,000 daily
flights, with hubs in Amsterdam, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Detroit, Memphis,
Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York-JFK, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Salt Lake City and
Tokyo-Narita. The airline's service includes the SkyMiles frequent flier
program, the world's largest airline loyalty program; the award-winning
BusinessElite service; and more than 45 Delta Sky Clubs in airports worldwide.
Customers can check in for flights, print boarding passes, check bags and review
flight status atdelta.com.
About the Joint Venture
With nearly 250 daily trans-Atlantic flights and a fleet of 144 aircraft, the
joint venture between Air France-KLM, Alitalia and Delta Air Lines provides
customers with the benefits of a vast route network offering more frequencies,
competitive fares and harmonized services on all trans-Atlantic flights. The JV
network is structured around seven main hubs: Amsterdam, Atlanta, Detroit,
Minneapolis, New York-JFK, Paris-CDG and Rome Fiumicino, together with
Cincinnati, Lyon, Milan, Memphis and Salt Lake City. The JV offers customers
access to 300 destinations beyond the 26 North American gateways and 200
destinations beyond the 33 European gateways throughout Europe, Asia and Latin
America. The JV represents 26% of total trans-Atlantic capacity and generates
$10 billion in annual revenues. Under the terms of this agreement, the partners
jointly operate their trans-Atlantic routes, thereby sharing revenues and costs.
For more information on Air France-KLM, Alitalia or Delta go to the respective
corporate websites.
CONTACT: Air France Corporate Communications
Tel: +33-1-41565600
Alitalia Corporate Communications
Tel: +39-06-65638950
Delta Corporate Communications
Tel: +1-404-7152554 (U.S.)
Tel: +44-208-8676295 (Europe, Africa, Middle East)
KLM Corporate Communications
Tel: +31-20-6494545
[HUG#1429657]
Press Release: http://hugin.info/130669/R/1429657/376685.pdf
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Source: KLM via Thomson Reuters ONE
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