Alitalia future in jeopardy after pilots walk out of talks

Another dark cloud hangs over the bankrupt Italian national airline’s future after unionized pilots decided to walk out of negotiations aimed at coming to an accord on the carrier’s restructuring plans. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government has decided to sell Alitalia’s successful units to a group of sixteen Italian investors, and a central element of this plan involves thousands of job cuts. The pilots, however, have decided to walk out of negotiations, even though they are unlikely to reject the restructuring plan outright. The union involved has indicated that it would like to meet alone with Italian government officials before discussing with Alitalia representatives.

All nine unions representing Alitalia workers must agree to the controversial rescue plan, which would see the creation of a much smaller airline with fewer employees and airplanes and a merger with AirOne. Failing this, the bid to sell the government’s 49.9 percent stake to private investors will almost certainly collapse, just as it did in April, when unions were reticent to accept an Air France-KLM purchase of the airline.

There may be trouble ahead for the Alitalia bid, considering that five out of nine unions have indicated their opposition to the current rescue plan, including groups representing both pilots and flight attendants.

Thank you to the Associated Press and Reuters for the initial report.

www.alitalia.com