After a gap of nine years, Italian airline Alitalia has re-started direct flights to India with service connecting the national capital and Rome.
The daily flight service would be operated with a 250- seater Airbus 330 aircraft. The first flight from here took off today.
"Alitalia is flying back to India after a nine-year absence with a new direct service between Delhi and Rome operated every day for the whole winter season until March 24, 2018," the carrier said in a release.
The airline's Chief Commercial Officer Fabio Lazzerini said India represents a unique opportunity to position ourselves in a country which is already becoming more and more important.
In 2015, over 4.26 lakh travellers from India arrived in Italy, as per official data from Italy.
"From a cultural and tourist point of view also, we have thousands of years of history... This is why we are re- investing in the country and we are back. We could have been back earlier than this but better late than never," he said.
According to the airline, the decision to launch the service between Delhi and Rome was taken to meet the increasing demand for flights between the two countries and would also help strengthen bilateral trade relations.
"All classes feature on board wi-fi connectivity for phone calls, Internet and e-mail," it added.
In the 2017-2018 winter schedule, Alitalia would be flying to 74 destinations, including 20 Italian and 54 international ones, with over 3,300 weekly flights.
Since May this year, the airline is operating under extraordinary administration and the Italian government has appointed three commissioners to manage the company.
The Italian government has provided a bridge loan of 900 million euros at market interest rates and would be repaid without involving disbursement by Italian taxpayers, according to the release.
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