Alitalia Gets One Last Chance

At the annual meeting for Alitalia, Aristide Police, the chairman of the carrier, had a few angry shareholders to deal with since the company’s shares have been suspend, the talks of a foreign takeover have fallen apart, and the fact that the airline is losing almost 1 million Euros per day.  In the meeting, he offered the 36 shareholders a few cheap snacks, and he admitted that the airline was facing only one more chance for surviving.  He stated a list of all the factors that led Alitalia into this crisis they are in, including the increase in competition from cheaper airlines, the high price of fuel, the resignation of some their board members, trade union conflicts, an industrial plan that was unreliable, and losing their reputation at 150 million Euros.

Mr. Police, which is the fourth chairman that Alitalia has had in 2 years, aimed at meddlesome politicians and powerful unions, saying that they have unjustified power and privileges.  The shareholders stood up, shouting and cursing the politicians, and saying that they have used the 49.9% of the state’s shares to destroy the airline for years, which has made a lot of airports unprofitable.  A previous chairman and other managers have said that Alitalia needed an exorcist, that Italian citizenship should be stripped from the company’s incompetent managers, and that the family of one guy feared for the mental stability of him because of the trauma he had been put through.

Their last hope is that Intesa Sanpaolo, which is a big time Italian bank that Alitalia last month appointed to be its advisor, will find a plan that can rescue the carrier.  Mr. Police said that he should now in a few days, but it could actually take the back the whole rest of the month to go through the company’s books and proposals.

Go to www.alitalia.com to get more information on this airline.