By Costas Pitas
LONDON, June 18 (Reuters) - British airline easyJet will cut the number of flights it operates from Italy's busiestairport, Rome Fiumicino, the latest blow for a hub hit by ablaze last month.
The low-cost carrier said on Thursday it would roughly halvethe number of passengers it carries and flights it operates outof the airport, from around 4 million passengers at present to 2million from next year.
The Italian capital's principal airport, which served 39million passengers in 2014, was hit last month by a fire thatcaused dozens of flights to be cancelled and badly damaged themain international terminal building. It is still operating at60 percent capacity.
EasyJet Chief Executive Carolyn McCall said in a call withanalysts last month the fire had exacerbated problems at theairport.
The airline said high airport charges and low levels ofpunctuality had also hampered the viability of its Fiumicinoflights.
The company said a significant proportion of the flights tobe lost would be domestic services and it would expand both thefrequency and number of international routes from Milan, Veniceand Naples. (Additional reporting by Isla Binnie in Rome; Editing by DavidHolmes)