Alitalia to cut non-staff costs (2)

(ANSA) - Fiumicino, January 23 - Alitalia CEO Cramer Ball on Monday informed the board of a "plan, already launched, for a drastic reduction of costs that sees an already identified saving - not concerning staff costs - of at least 160 million euros in 2017".
    The board of the struggling Italian flag-carrier ratified the appointment of Roland Berger and KPMG as external consultants - the former for the business plan, the latter on the financial one - and said they were already at work on providing an independent assessment of the relaunch plan prepared by the company's CEO and management.
    The Alitalia board and shareholders "unanimously confirmed their full commitment to backing the management in reaching the objectives set out in the relaunch plan", a statement said after the board met.