Alitalia, the infamous Italian airline, is moving closer to a deal with Air France-KLM as Lufthansa has failed to make an offer for the broke airline, said Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi. Premier Berlusconi reportedly met with a few Italian investors that have acquired most of Alitalia’s profitable assets and are re-launching the carrier. Apparently Lufthansa “never came forward, either in person or with an offer.” The leader of the investors, Piaggio’s CEO Roberto Colaninno, favors selling a 20-25% stake in the carrier to KLM-Air France. However, trouble has come about from the Italian government who were skeptical about Air France-KLM’s earlier bid (that planned to shut down Milan’s hub). The Northern League, a political party based in Milan, has been against Air France-KLM since that first bid – The Northern League and Premier Berlusconi are close allies.
This has been dragging on for a bit too long now. The management is shrinking, the ground crews are walking-off the job – who knows where this could go. It’s no doubt that Alitalia is in a serious mess, but someone needs to get in there and fix what’s broken. Some of you who get around the airline blogs might recall Brett Snyder of Cranky Flier writing a post titled “Alitalia Ends the Year By Sucking as Usual;” there, he recaps Alitalia’s latest strategies and shortcomings.
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