Representatives of both Israeli and Italian civil aviation have signed a deal to add an additional airline to the flights linking the major cities of Milan and Rome to Israel and raised the number of flights between the two countries to 26 flights a week.

For comparison, the number of passengers flying between the two countries has dropped by between 15-20 percent compared with the same period last year, and the market share of Italy’s Alitalia airline has dropped from 3 percent in 2007 to 2.29 percent in 2008.