I’m cynical whenever I read an article about Alitalia because it seems that every one says a collapse in imminent in a couple of days but they just keep flying. But, it does seem that the end is really starting to come now. From Reuters:
As concerns about Alitalia’s ability to pay for fuel grew, it suffered its first asset seizure with the Israel Airports Authority confiscating its bank accounts over a $500,000 debt.
And then…
Fantozzi meets civil aviation authorities on Monday to see if Alitalia can retain its operating licence, and he must then decide on announcing the public tender for Alitalia’s assets.
The authority says that if there is no feasible rescue plan, Alitalia’s planes will be grounded within a week to 10 days.
This is certainly a sad situation, and honestly I think the unions can be blamed here. Their constant refusal to accept any offers last week simply made the situation worse. I can certainly understand labor negotiations, but last week it seemed pretty clear: accept the offer or instead of some layoffs, the airline closes. Now it seems that they’re more open to negotiating, but it could be too late.
We’ll have to see how things develop I guess…
We spoke at length about this on this week’s Airplane Geeks. Apparently, the local potential saviors pulled out because Alitalia was requiring the release of 3,000 employees. I’m not sure how many employees Alitalia has, but I would guess it’s around the 20,000-30,000 range, all of which who will now be out of work because they tried to save 3,000 jobs. Seems a bit backwards to me, but I’m hanging on for a wild ride!