Coordinated Network For International Travel Between U.S., Europe

Alitalia joined the Air France-KLM Group and Delta Air Lines in those airline's trans-Atlantic joint venture on Monday. 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 access to a 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.

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.

"Trans-Atlantic traffic is the most strategic and competitive marketplace," said Alitalia's CEO Rocco Sabelli. "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."

"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.

FMI: www.delta.com, www.alitalia.com