Alitalia heads off to Prague, Tokyo Narita and Tunis

Alitalia, having started just one route last week at the start of S14 season, chose this week to launch three new airport pairs. First up on 1 April was the Italian flag carrier’s new link betweenMilan Malpensa (MXP) and Tunis (TUN). The twice-weekly service (Tuesdays and Saturdays) was previously operated by the airline until May 2010. The 983-kilometre sector will be flown by a variety of equipment, and will operate in direct competition against Tunisair’s 11 times weekly service. Launched the same day from the city’s downtown airport of Milan Linate (LIN), the SkyTeam carrier began a thrice-weekly service to the Czech capital, Prague (PRG). The route will again be flown by several aircraft types, but will face no direct competition. However, both easyJet (double-daily) and Czech Airlines (12 times weekly) will compete indirectly on the Milan-Prague city pair, both operating from Milan Malpensa. The airport pair, a seasonal service which will operate until 25 October, was previously flown by Alitalia until October 1998. Finally, on 2 April, Alitalia improved its regional long-haul credentials by starting a twice-weekly (Thursdays and Saturdays)Venice Marco Polo (VCE) to Tokyo Narita (NRT) service. The 293-seat, 777-200-operated route will encounter no direct competition.