Alitalia is Bought by Italian Air Company

Roberto Colaninno, the Chairman of the Italian Air Company, an Italian consortium, said on Friday that they have taken formal possession of the assets on Alitalia, stepping closer towards the long-awaited agreement. The deal for the consortium to purchase the carrier’s assets for €427 million was suppose to be completed by the end of last month, but was postponed.

The Italian Air Company has been getting closer to the completion of the agreement during recent weeks. Due to opposition from employees, the deal has been slowed down, but on Friday, the Avia and Anpav unions, who are representing flight attendants, made an agreement to join the main unions in favor of the deal, even though the Italian Air Company had ignored their protests effectively so far, beginning to hire pilot and flight staff individually.

On Thursday, the Italian Air Company also said that they had finalized the purchase of AirOne, a smaller rival airline of Alitalia, whose services will be combined with the operations of Alitalia as part of the Italian carrier’s relaunch. The consortium says that the relaunch could happen as early as January 12^th, with the €1 billion deal to be complete by then.

Furthermore, the Italian Air Company is now planning a link up with Air France KLM or Lufthansa. Colaninno said that they would propose a new partner to the board before the end of this year, offering a 20%-25% stake in the new airline. British Airways has also reportedly approached the Italian Air Company about a commercial partnership.

Visit www.alitalia.com to find out more about the carrier.