Alitalia cancels 60 pct of flights

turnaround plan as it seeks to unlock financing and avoid having to ground planes.

“We are on strike for the hundredth time because this crisis at Alitalia, all the crises, and the industrial plan ... are always against the workers,” Paolo De Montis, a representative of the USB union, said outside Rome’s Fiumicino airport where hundreds of workers gathered.

Alitalia CEO Cramer Ball has said the cuts were “painful but necessary”. Despite several overhauls and cash injections over the years, Alitalia is losing at least half a million euros ($533,000) a day and could run out of cash in the coming weeks unless shareholders agree to pump in more money, sources say.

Fiumicino’s main terminal was deserted as only a few passengers, who did not know about the strike, had turned up. (RTRS)