Alitalia has announced that it will suspend all flights to and from Milan’s Malpensa Airport, effective Monday.
Futhermore, Italy’ flag-carrier is reducing flights from other cities in Northern Italy. From Milan’s regional airport Linate, the carrier will only serve domestic routes.
This latest development in Milan comes after the Italian government put the Lombardy region, which includes Milan, on lockdown, due to the Coronavirus outbreak.
Many airlines have already reduced or fully suspended flights to northern Italy to avoid the risk of further spreading the virus and the Covid-19 disease, which first originated in Wuhan, China. Some governments have introduced strict travel restrictions for affected countries like Italy.
Carriers that have fully suspended their Milan services include American Airlines, Delta, SAS Scandinavian, Turkish Airlines and Singapore Airlines.
Even though Italy became the first country to ban air connections to and from China in early-February, the country has by far the most confirmed cases of Coronavirus in all of Europe.
The virus disease has an increasingly negative effect on global aviation. Airlines are fighting with a severe drop in demand, even in countries that are not heavily affected by Corona. Earlier this week, Germany-based Lufthansa Group announced that it would cut its total capacity by up to 50 percent.
Alitalia’s two main hubs are Rome Fiumicino and Milan Malpensa. It serves long haul flights from both airports. The airline is now facing questions over whether it would be able survive the current crisis. Alitalia is constantly battling with financial issues and has not made a profit for years.
Jakob Wert is an aviation journalist from Germany. He built up the website IFN.news and is the Editor-In-Chief of International Flight Network.
