Alitalia will face a four-hour strike by its pilots and cabin attendants on 22 March in protest at the airline's refusal to permanently halt the outsourcing of operations to Romanian carrier Carpatair.

Although the SkyTeam carrier's relationship with the Romanian company is temporarily suspended following a 2 February landing accident at Rome Fiumicino involving a Carpatair ATR 72-500 operating on behalf of Alitalia, the ANPAC, AVIA and ANPAV trade unions want Alitalia to go further.

A joint statement from the unions says their members are worried about job security. It says: "Because of this, and due to other outsourcing activities, in place or planned, pilots and flight attendants have no guarantees about their future employment."

Additionally, it says the terms and conditions at Alitalia Cityliner are "unacceptable" and complains that the company has refused to enter into further negotiations.

Alitalia says it will reduce the number of flights during the strike period and is offering alternative transport to affected passengers.

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news