"Considering the developments in Italy, a reduction of our capacity looks inevitable," a spokeswoman for the Dutch arm of airline group Air France KLM said.

The spokeswoman said it was too early to say how many of its weekly 152 flights to Italy would be scrapped.

Like other major airlines, KLM has already cancelled all its flights to mainland China for several weeks.

Earlier this week, the company extended its ban on flights to Chengdu, Hangzhou and Xiamen in China to at least May 3.

KLM expects to resume flights to Beijing and Shanghai on March 29.

(Reporting by Bart Meijer; editing by David Evans)