Alitalia (AZA, Rome Fiumicino) will lay off 994 employees who did not sign up for its voluntary redundancy scheme with effect from October 31. Italy's AGI newswire says that of the 994, 879 are ground crew, 61 are pilots, and 54 are flight stewards.

The agreement was signed on the evening of Saturday, October 26, between Alitalia and the FIT CISL Uiltrasporti and UGL Trasporto Aereo unions. Italy's largest union, CGIL, did not sign up to the agreement that was reached in July.

According to the La Stampa newspaper, Alitalia had already retrenched 700 employees who either voluntarily resigned or reached retirement age.

The cuts are part of the carrier's multi-billion Euro deal with Etihad Airways (EY, Abu Dhabi International) which envisages a streamlined, rejuvenated Alitalia. In its August announcement, Alitalia agreed to trim its workforce by some 2000 positions.

Meanwhile, effective January 2015, Alitalia will base an ATR72-500 belonging to fellow Etihad affiliate, Darwin Airline (Lugano), out of Naples Capodichino for use on flights to Catania, Palermo International, and Turin Caselle. Earlier this month, the Italian carrier signed a codeshare deal with Etihad's German affiliate, Air Berlin (1991) (Berlin Tegel), in which both carriers' combined 412 weekly nonstop flights between Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy will be codeshares effective this winter season.