New doubts about Alitalia future

New doubts are emerging about whether the Italian government will be able to rescue the country’s struggling, near bankrupt national airline, Alitalia. It appears as though the final stage of the long-standing privatization process will now be delayed, after Italian officials failed to come up with a comprehensive proposal to save the carrier last week, as had been originally promised. As an added sign of trouble, major unions in Italy have now publicly voiced their concern about the future of the national airline and have called upon conservative Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to present a concrete, realistic plan. The leader of the country’s transport union has also implied that Alitalia’s managers have displayed incompetence for the past decade and should be replaced with more capable officials, while pointing out that the airline’s fleet is aging and needs to be updated.

Filt-Cgil Mauro Rossi, the transport union’s secretary, noted that his organization is not receiving adequate information on the company’s plans and criticized the Italian government for not offering official confirmation of its plans. Berlusconi for his part, however, has now told a television host that his government would present a concrete plan for Alitalia’s future this autumn, even though this proposal had widely been expected to be made public late last month. Berlusconi also pledged to limit any necessary job cuts and noted that his government was still discussing with local and foreign investors. Some newspapers, however, believe that there may be as many as 5,000 job cuts later this year, although Italian authorities have not commented on these figures.

Thank you to the International Herald Tribune for the initial report.

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