Alitalia (archive)

  • Alitalia, in September the growth of long-haul flights continues
  • Alitalia, Lufthansa takes to the track: letter to Fs and Mise for commercial partnership
  • Alitalia, unions on a war footing. Procedures for strike started

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October 14, 2019 Decisive moments to learn about the fate of Alitalia. Tuesday the terms for the binding offer and the business plan by Ferrovie dello Stato expire.

Now everything will depend on the Boards of Directors of Atlantia and Fs, while the Ministry of Economic Development is waiting for a communication that, according to the indications that emerge, may not contain the final proposal, but would formalize the interest in the establishment of the consortium: a formula which would make it possible to "respect" the terms, but which would open the way to a new extension, perhaps 2-3 weeks.

Time needed to untie the knots and define supply, industrial plan and governance. Meanwhile, Lufthansa, which in recent days has re-proposed itself as a partner to Fs and Mise, as an alternative to Delta, has sent a delegation to Rome. The Germans, led by commercial director Harry Hohmeister, met with Fs and Atlantia separately.

The attention is all focused on the Boards: in the morning that of Atlantia, in the afternoon that of Fs, who, in the light of Atlantia's decisions, will have to send the communication to Mise. According to rumors, we are moving towards a justified extension request which would confirm the interest in setting up the consortium in which Fs and Atlantia would have 37.5%, Delta 10% and Mef 15%.

Among the industrial issues, the perplexities of Atlantia, which in a letter to the Mise on the concessions dossier, highlights in particular the expected responses from Delta on routes and equity: points that will be the subject of further negotiations between the partners.

On the table also the node of governance, with the choice of the managing director and the redundancies, which could reach 2,800. If everything is ready in 2-3 weeks, a transitional period of 2-3 months would begin. It is not known if the cash on hand (310 million at the end of September) will be enough to make the company fly until the re-launch. The hypothesis is that of a new bridging loan, for about 250-300 million.