Air France chief rejects Alitalia rumours

Pierre-Cyril Spinetta has flatly rejected rumours and speculation that have been widely circulated about the possibility that Air France-KLM may still be interested in buying Alitalia-after its failed bid earlier this year-since the Italian prime minister now appears more willing to support such a transaction. Spinetta, however, spoke briefly during a conference earlier today about this speculation, rejecting it straight away. Spinetta said that the Alitalia negotiations represented a “closed chapter” and one which Air France was unlikely to reopen. Other than this clear rejection, however, Spinetta did not elaborate any further on the issue, telling journalists that he did not want to offer detailed comments at this time.

Spinetta did, however, indicate that the Franco-Dutch carrier is currently fully occupied with “internal problems” caused by the meteoric rise in the price of oil on the world market. Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, the airline’s deputy chief, however, went further by pointing out that despite some media reports to the contrary, no contact whatsoever have taken place between AF and Alitalia over the course of the past several days, despite an apparent change in Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s position concerning a potential Air France bid, which analysts thought might encourage the French carrier to return to the negotiating table.

While much of the airline industry was full of news about Air France’s bid to purchase Italy’s struggling and badly indebted national airline earlier this year, the carrier abruptly withdrew its bid after it failed to win the backing of powerful Italian trade unions.

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