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Alitalia Rescue Plan Progresses
Weekend developments boosts Berlusconi.
September 29, 2008
Italian national carrier Alitalia reached an agreement with its pilots' union early Saturday, allowing the airline to focus on teaming up with Air France-KLM or Lufthansa in an arrangement which could be announced in early November.
The agreement is seen as a victory for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who had promised to rescue Alitalia and work out a plan to keep the state-run carrier under Italian majority control.
The pilots agreed to back Italian business consortium CAI's plan to save Alitalia via a partnership with French or German competitors. Flight-attendant union representatives, who have withheld approval, will meet with CAI today to decide on wage and job cuts.
CAI Chief Executive Rocco Sabelli said he was now looking ahead to signing an agreement with an international partner.
"Now that there’s been the agreement with pilots … from next week we’ll dedicate ourselves to a foreign partner," said Rocco Sabelli, CAI chief executive, in an interview with an Italian newspaper. "We’ll make a decision based on industrial logic between Air France and Lufthansa. What’s certain is that control will remain in Italian hands and the partner will have a minority stake."
A new Alitalia could open for business by Nov. 1, said Corrado Passera, CEO of Intesa Sanpaolo, in an interview with the newspaper Il Sole 24. Intesa, a banking company, is part of the CAI consortium. However, Passera added, "There are still a lot of deadlines, appointments and operating problems that need to be resolved during October."
Alitalia filed for bankruptcy in Rome in August, and was recently in danger of losing its operating license.
To read a Reuters article about the Alitalia rescue plans, click here.
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