Alitalia, struggling to avoid bankruptcy, cancelled 90 flights on Monday due to a 24-hour strike by cabin crews locked in a contractual dispute with the Italian flag carrier. Alitalia said the cancelled flights had been due to depart from main airports in Rome and Milan and that 62 of them were international. The SULT union began the industrial action at midnight. It was the union's second strike this month and followed a four-hour work stoppage by cabin crews and ground staff on February 10 that prompted Alitalia to cancel 141 flights.

Alitalia hammered out a deal with the country's biggest unions last year over thousands of job cuts and a radical restructuring to save the state-controlled airline from collapse.

Copyright Reuters, 2005