Ailing Italian airline Alitalia said on Tuesday its passenger bookings had recovered in recent weeks, after a sharp tumble in April driven partly by fears it might go out of business.
The state-controlled carrier blamed cuts in capacity from redesigning its network for the slide in ticket sales but acknowledged that bookings had fallen about 20 percent after the collapse of its planned sale to Air France-KLM.
The French carrier's withdrawal from the deal left Alitalia on the edge of bankruptcy, which it managed to avoid thanks to a EUR300 million euro emergency government loan. It has issued urgent appeals for new capital to keep flying.
Alitalia's passenger traffic fell nearly 26 percent in April, according to the Association of European Airlines, the steepest fall among the carriers tracked by the body.
The airline said the decision to cut back its presence in Milan to focus on Rome did not bode poorly for overall business, noting that its traffic at Rome's Fiumicino Airport jumped nearly 25 percent in April and more than 32 percent in May.
The recent trend of an upturn in bookings should reduce the shortfall between its capacity offered and transported in coming months, Alitalia said.
Italy has begun its third attempt to sell the airline and its shares have been suspended indefinitely.
