Alitalia To Lose EUR200 Mln In 2009 - CEO

Italian airline Alitalia, which was relaunched in January, expects to lose EUR200 million euros (USD$251 million) this year, its chief executive said on Tuesday.

The airline, which is now a slimmed-down carrier with a smaller capacity owned by a group of Italian investors and Air France-KLM, was on track to lose EUR1 billion on an operating basis in 2008, the commissioner overseeing its bankruptcy has previously said.

Alitalia's passenger numbers dropped sharply after its January relaunch but the situation has improved since then, CEO Rocco Sabelli said at a conference.

"We had a terrible first three to four weeks," he said, adding that the airline did not cancel any flights despite the fall in bookings.

"After those terrible three weeks we began to do better even if we're not filling the aircraft as much as we would like," he said.

Air France-KLM has a 25 percent stake in Alitalia.