Alitalia Starting Venice-Abu Dhabi Flights

The first Venice-Abu Dhabi flight takes off Sunday evening, marking the Italian carrier’s first new route to the UAE this year following Etihad Airways’ 49 per cent stake in the company.

Flights depart Venice’s Marco Polo airport at 2155, landing in Abu Dhabi at 0555 the next morning and the return flight leaves the UAE capital 0905 and arrives in Venice 1335.

The service will be operated using a 250-seat Airbus A330 aircraft, arranged in three service classes: Magnifica (business class), Classica Plus (premium economy) and Classica (economy).

Alitalia and Etihad will hope to funnel passengers from Venice and Verona into Abu Dhabi, eyeing both destination and transfer traffic to the city and onto Etihad’s global network.

Silvano Cassano, CEO of Alitalia, said connections to the Indian Subcontinent and East Asia have been in the hands of Alitalia’s competitors for many years. “This is about to change, and our strength, together with the strength of Etihad Airways, will allow us to offer destinations, flight frequencies, connections and services that are unrivalled by competitors,” he said.

Venice is now connected to three points in the Gulf, joining flights from Doha on Qatar Airways and Dubai on Emirates.

Catania in Sicily will become the fifth destination linking Abu Dhabi with Italy (and first link with any UAE carrier) this year and complement services to Rome, Bologna, Milan and Venice.

Alitalia is also raising its Milan Malpensa-Abu Dhabi flights to triple daily, with the start of the summer schedules.

Etihad and Alitalia are focusing on debt and cost reductions and productivity improvements for Alitalia this year, with a view to it breaking even by 2016 and returning to operating profit by 2017.