Airlines Alitalia rescue ’near‘ says minister 23/07/08 20:03 CET

Italy is close to finding a way to rescue the near-bankrupt airline Alitalia according to the country’s Industry Minister Claudio Scajola. However he did not rule out the possibility that the state-controlled carrier could be placed into administration.

Reportedly a business plan is being put together, and the minister said: “I think we’re getting near to a solution to be able to relaunch a company with Italian capital, which would be good for Italy, which remains a world power but which must regain its pride.”

Italian newspapers are full of speculative reports about Alitalia’s future make up. Italian bank Intesa-Sanpaolo – which is the Rome government’s adviser on the sale of the airline – is said to be assembling a consortium of leading business groups.

Reportedly Alitalia would then be put into administration to lose its debts and a new company would be merged with smaller Italian airline AirOne cutting 4,000 workers along the way. The business groups and several banks would inject around 1.5 billion euros into the enterprise.

It is not clear if Alitalia’s unions would agree. They -blocked a previous takeover attempt by Air France-KLM’s.