Alitalia : Gubitosi in India, direct service Rome-Delhi resumed
Delhi - After nine years, Alitalia has resumed direct flights to New Delhi, India. Alitalia has made a strategic, highly symbolic choice for relations between Rome and Delhi, during the first visit in ten years by an Italian Prime Minister, the current PM, Paolo Gentiloni, following the Enrica Lexie case of the two marines, which "sparked" a conflict between the two countries.
The applause by top managers and Trade Association representatives at the announcement by Alitalia's commissioner, Luigi Gubitosi, appeared almost as a liberation. Gubitosi took the floor at the meeting, held at the Taj Hotel in the Delhi diplomatic enclave, of the 19 managers and trade representatives accompanying Gentiloni and the Indian Minister of Industry, Ramesh Abhishek, to announce the new flight plan.
The service will run daily throughout the winter until 24 March, 2018. The flight will leave Fiumicino at 2:40 p.m. and arrive in New Delhi the following day at 2: 30 a.m. local time. This will allow passengers arriving in New Delhi top continue their journey not only towards the other main cities in India, including Mumbai, Calcutta, Chennai, Jaipur and Bangalore, but also to numerous international destinations, such as Nepal, Thailand or Singapore, thanks to commercial agreements with Jet Airways and other Indian airlines. Take-off from New Delhis Indira Gandhi International Airport is scheduled for 4:20 a.m. local time (a very busy slot for the Indian airport), landing at Fiumicino at 8:40 a.m. This operational plan will allow travellers landing at Rome Fiumicino from New Delhi to continue with Alitalia to about forty destinations in Italy, Europe, North Africa and North and South America, including not only four destinations in the USA - New York, Boston, Miami and Los Angeles, but also Havana and S„o Paulo. The flight will operate from the new International Area 'E', inaugurated in December 2016. The Rome-New Delhi flights will use the 250-seater Airbus 330 planesdivided into three travel classes.