Italian flag ship airline Alitalia is planning to suspend its operations to India and China from coming summer. Huge losses have forced Alitalia to pull out from the lucrative and fastest growing economies India and China. Worldwide airlines are looking for slots to fly to India and China to take the benefit of the growth these two countries experiencing.

Alitalia has accepted the bid of KLM-Air France group and will join them soon. Alitalia currently operates 14 flights a week from Milan in Italy to Mumbai and Delhi in India. The airline wants to focus more on North and South America, Japan and Mediterranean countries. The airline has not posted profit since 1998.

Last year UK based British Midland withdrew its flight due to dip in load factors. It used to fly between Mumbai and London Heathrow.

Global Airlines like Finnair, Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa, Emirates, Qatar Airways and British Airways among others have recently expanded their operations into India. Indian giants like Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher are expanding their International operations.

Alitalia decision to withdraw flights will backfire at them at this stage.

Rajat Nagpal