The new Italian government is considering renationalizing the Italian flagship airline Alitalia, which is heavily indebted and currently in administration and faces a December deadline to repay its creditors.
The planned proposal would see the state take a 51 per cent stake in the struggling airline, alongside a new private partner – potentially, Lufthansa, report Italian media.
The airline, founded in 1947, has been undergoing a gradual decline in the last two decades. In 2008, then PM Silvio Berlusconi staved off an attempt by Air France to buy the airline.
In 2015, Middle-Eastern airline Etihad took a 49 per cent stake, famously remodelling the hostesses uniforms.
But the sartorial changes did little to quell the budget deficit: Within months of that investment, the company was losing €1.3 million per day, reports Italian daily La Stampa.
In 2017, the company went into administration, with several rescue plans having failed ever since.
«We will bring the company under the national flag, with 51 per cent in Italy and with a partner that makes it fly,» said Italy’s Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Danilo Toninelli discussing the new plan to renationalize the airline.
Hungarian airline Wizz Air, British company EasyJet and German giant Lufthansa have all made offers for a stake in the airline, according to Italian news agency ANSA…
