As part of the upward trend in traffic at Rome Fiumicino airport, Alitalia reported a 35.6% rise in passengers carried for the period August 1-24, against a 29.1% 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%. In more detail, international traffic rose by 42.8% with a load factor of 79.3% (for Malpensa, during the same period in 2007, the load factor was 75.7%) and intercontinental traffic increased by 121.1% with a load factor of 84.6% (for Malpensa, during the same period in 2007, it was 81.2%).

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% 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% against a 29.1% 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% January-August; up by +0.8 points compared to 98% in 2007) and punctuality (79.4% January-August, up by +5.7 points compared to 73.7% in 2007) in line with major European airlines.

Rome, 27 August 2008