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ALITALIA
SpA, Italy’s national airline, moved a step closer to
averting collapse after pilots agreed to a
government-backed takeover by a group of business
executives.
Unions
representing most of Alitalia’s 2,500 pilots reached an
accord with the CAI group, led by Roberto Colaninno,
early Saturday. The Rome-based carrier’s ground staff
had already approved the plan to eliminate about 3,000
jobs and impose longer hours for the same pay. Flight
attendants unions said they are “making some progress”
and will meet with CAI again on September 29.
“The
agreement with pilots allows us to look at coming days
with great serenity,” Transport Minister Altero Matteoli
told Sky TG24 television in an interview broadcast
today. “Now we can let planes take off.”
Colaninno, chairman of scooter maker Piaggio & C. SpA,
assembled a group of investors who want to merge
Alitalia’s flight business with domestic competitor Air
One SpA to create an airline that controls more than
half of the Italian market. Alitalia was losing $3
million a day when it declared insolvency on August 29
to allow the state-backed rescue plan to begin.
Alitalia’s bankruptcy administrator warned this week
that the carrier didn’t have enough cash to survive
beyond this month. The airline, which flew 25 million
travelers last year, risked becoming the first major
European flagship carrier to collapse since Swissair
Group and Belgium’s Sabena in 2001.
Attendants hold out
THERE
will be fewer job cuts for pilots than CAI had
originally planned, said Massimo Notaro of the Unione
Piloti association. The new proposal includes hiring
about 140 part-time pilots and a separate contract for
captains, the government said in a faxed statement.
Seven of nine Alitalia unions have now signed the
agreement, with Sdl and Avia, representing most of the
flight attendants, still considering the latest terms.
Prime
Minister Silvio Berlusconi pledged during his election
campaign in April to save Alitalia, which employs about
19,000 people. He said on September 18 that the carrier
“may be on the edge of the abyss” after CAI halted
negotiations when it failed to win over most of the
unions.
CAI,
whose investors include the Benetton family, revived its
offer on September 25 with new concessions, such as more
days off for pilots and cabin crews. Berlusconi’s
government also is trying to entice international
airlines to join CAI, in part to help keep the unions in
line.
“This
agreement allows Berlusconi to fulfill his campaign
promise and was possible after better conditions to
pilots were offered,” said Angelo Drusiani, who manages
the equivalent of $1.9 billion of bonds at Banca
Albertini Syz & C. in Milan, in a Bloomberg Television
interview.
Big
names
COLANINNO, former chairman of Telecom Italia SpA, has
pledged along with at least 16 partners to invest about
€1 billion ($1.46 billion) to buy Alitalia’s commercial
flight assets. The group includes Atlantia SpA, the
toll-road company controlled by the Benetton family.
(Bloomberg) |
