November 21, 2019 is yet another new extension date granted by the Italy Minister of Economic Development, (MED), Stefano Patuanelli, to Alitalia Airline for the presentation of bids.
The authorization of the MED has set 2 conditions: the direct intervention of the commissioners and an immediate comparison with the bidders. The Lufthansa proposal, therefore, opens.
On the board of directors on October 23, the German airline decided to wait for the meeting scheduled for Monday, October 28, in Rome between the airline’s top management, government representatives, and commissioners, to verify point by point the real situation of the Italian carrier.
On the table, therefore, remain the hypotheses of a commercial agreement feared in recent weeks or even an offer of equity participation tied to certain conditions, first of all, a drastic reduction in personnel.
While waiting for more certain news, even Delta Air Lines’ top managers want to understand the next moves of the German carrier to definitively express its willingness to increase participation from 10 to 15%, thus paying valuable additional economic resources in the new Alitalia’s coffers
At the current time, the Alitalia cash flow is extremely fluid, because some unknowns remain. This starts from the redundancies, since after the parliamentary question and the harsh note of the trade unions (asking for immediate explanations to the Mise about the news circulated in these hours that assumes 5,000 redundancies, mainly land personnel, in the absence of an immediate recapitalization of 2.5 billion euros).
This is an eventuality that sees the unions totally opposed, to the point of fearing a series of strikes and the hypothesis of a temporary “nationalization” of the airline for 6 months.
The other issue relates to liquidity since the rumor seems confirmed that at the beginning of October less than 150 million euros would be left in the airline’s coffers and that, therefore, to ensure operations until the beginning of 2020, a further loan would be required of at least 400 million euros that the government could release with the “extraordinary measure” procedure.
While Alitalia seems to be sailing in a stormy climate, new long-haul routes are scheduled. The Italian miracle keeps recurring.
