Alitalia will add service to Washington Dulles International airport next year, its first new US destination in nearly a decade.

The SkyTeam Alliance carrier will offer five-times weekly service to Dulles from Rome Fiumicino with a 249-seat Airbus A330-200 from 2 May 2019, airport operator the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority says.

Washington Dulles will be Alitalia's first new US destination since it added Los Angeles to its network in 2010, FlightGlobal schedules show.

The Rome-based carrier is scheduled to grow US capacity by 6.4% year-over-year in 2018, the data shows.

Alitalia, while a fellow SkyTeam partner of Delta Air Lines, will exit the US mainline carrier's transatlantic joint venture with Air France and KLM under a revised agreement that adds Virgin Atlantic Airways to the immunised partnership. The carriers are awaiting anti-trust approval for the updated pact on both sides of the Atlantic.

However, Delta has reportedly submitted a bid for a stake in Alitalia. The Atlanta-based carrier declines to comment on the reports.

Alitalia will compete with summer seasonal service by United Airlines between Rome and Washington Dulles, schedules show.

Source: Cirium Dashboard