The relaunch of Italian airline Alitalia is going according to plan and the company's finances are stronger than expected, the chief executive of Air France-KLM Jean-Cyril Spinetta said on Wednesday.

In January, Air France-KLM took a 25 percent stake in Alitalia, which had filed for bankruptcy in August, and helped to relaunch it as a smaller regional carrier with fewer staff under the control of an Italian group of investors, CAI.

"As a shareholder, I was pleased to hear that Alitalia was exactly in line with the business plan which we had agreed," Spinetta told a news conference, flanked by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

"I had the pleasure to see that the state of the accounts is better than expected," he said. "That is very good news at a time when the air transport sector is suffering a major crisis."

Spinetta said Alitalia and its partners in the international SkyTeam alliance were working to improve air connections to Italy's cities and regions. Italy is Europe's fourth biggest travel market.