As part of the upward trend in traffic at Rome Fiumicino airport, Alitalia reported a 35.6 per cent rise in passengers carried for the period 1 to 24 August, against a 29.1 per cent increase in the number of seats offered, compared to the same period in 2007. The load factor (seat occupancy index) also went up by 3.5 percentage points to 74.5 per cent.

In more detail, international traffic rose by 42.8 per cent with a load factor of 79.3 per cent (for Malpensa, during the same period in 2007, the load factor was 75.7 per cent) and intercontinental traffic increased by 121.1 per cent with a load factor of 84.6 per cent (for Malpensa, during the same period in 2007, it was 81.2 per cent).

These figures show that the increased number of seats offered by Alitalia has led to a more than proportional growth of its passenger traffic at Fiumicino. At the same time, overall performance has also improved as shown by a 16 per cent decrease in the amount of mislaid luggage, compared to August 2007.

Marked progress was also made at Milan Linate airport where passenger traffic was up by 29.7 per cent against a 29.1 per cent increase in the number of seats offered. The load factor at Milan Linate also increased by +0.3 percentage points, compared to August 2007.

Improved overall performance is also confirmed by the 2008 figures for regularity (98.8 per cent January-August; up by +0.8 points compared to 98 per cent in 2007) and punctuality (79.4 per cent January-August, up by +5.7 points compared to 73.7 per cent in 2007) in line with major European airlines.