Italian airline Alitalia SAI has announced it will not renew its partnership agreement and ancillary joint ventures agreements with Air France-KLM as they are “no longer beneficial”.
The agreements, which come up for renewal in 2017, govern passenger services operated by the three carriers between Italy and France and between Italy and the Netherlands, as well as the marketing, sales and distribution of Alitalia Cargo belly services undertaken by Air France-KLM.
The original agreements were concluded with Alitalia CAI in 2009 and 2010 and were subsequently transferred to Alitalia SAI in January 2015.
Silvano Cassano, chief executive of Alitalia, said: “These agreements are no longer beneficial, either commercially or strategically, to the new Alitalia and its ambitious turnaround plan.
“They were negotiated when Alitalia was in a very different position, with the result that the agreements in their current forms favour the other party.
“They are undermining our ability to restructure our network and the airline effectively to achieve the long term sustainability of our business.
“The new Alitalia is in a new position. Our business needs agreements which deliver equitable value to each party.
“For Italy and for Alitalia, our first priority is to win back the inbound tourism market, while better serving Italian leisure and business travellers.
“In our plans we also want to deliver up-to-date cargo solutions to the Italian manufacturing industry, the second largest in Europe, which has growing needs to export goods worldwide.
“We have indicated to Air France-KLM that we are willing to discuss more equitable arrangements that benefit all the parties involved, but thus far we have been unable to achieve this result.
“We remain open to further discussions to achieve a mutually acceptable solution. However in the interest of transparency and certainty for all parties, we felt it necessary to announce our intention not to renew these agreements under the present conditions.”