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EasyJet to slash flights at beleaguered Rome airport

By Costas Pitas

LONDON, June 18 (Reuters) - British airline easyJet will cut the number of flights it operates from Italy's busiest airport, Rome Fiumicino, the latest blow for a hub hit by a blaze last month.

The low-cost carrier said on Thursday it would roughly halve the number of passengers it carries and flights it operates out of the airport, from around 4 million passengers at present to 2 million from next year.

The Italian capital's principal airport, which served 39 million passengers in 2014, was hit last month by a fire that caused dozens of flights to be cancelled and badly damaged the main international terminal building. It is still operating at 60 percent capacity.

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EasyJet Chief Executive Carolyn McCall said in a call with analysts last month the fire had exacerbated problems at the airport.

The airline said high airport charges and low levels of punctuality had also hampered the viability of its Fiumicino flights.

The company said a significant proportion of the flights to be lost would be domestic services and it would expand both the frequency and number of international routes from Milan, Venice and Naples. (Additional reporting by Isla Binnie in Rome; Editing by David Holmes)