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.

Alitalia started collecting the 200 artwork collection during their heyday of the 1950s, which is when they purchased modern art works as decorations for their VIP lounges, their DC8 fleet of planes, and boardrooms. The works are now located at their offices in Turin, Rome, Milan, New York, or just put away in storage.

While not every one of the works of art are going to be sold for high prices, art experts say that about 25% of the collection is extraordinarily valuable. During the month of June, a Severini painting sold for £15 million, which made it the most expensive Futurist piece to be auctioned.

Augusto Fantozzi, the bankruptcy commissioner of the carrier, authorized the sale and asked 4 auction houses for their consideration in evaluating the art collection. Last week, he unveiled that even though the trade unions were in protest, it was agreed on that the carrier would be sold to CAI, a consortium, in an agreement worth over £840 million.

Fantozzi said that the handover is to take place today, but the ENAC, the aviation authority in Italy, recently said that the relaunch was going to be postponed until mid-month due to loose ends being tied up.

Get more information about the airline at: www.alitalia.com

Last week, CAI overcame a key hurdle, gaining approval from the European Commission for the €375 million takeover, while the bankruptcy commissioner of the carrier is anticipated to approve it this week. The commissioner has to make sure that the offer from CAI is not sold for less than its market value. However, since there aren’t any other bidders and the cash reserves are dwindling quickly, he has hinted that the offer is going to be accepted.

Augusto Fantozzi, the bankruptcy commissioner, said that they will wrap the deal up this week, and he hopes that there will only be pleasant surprises. He already has confirmation from the surveillance committee, so he is now waiting for word from the minister. By the middle of this week, he added, there is going to be serenity.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi made a announcement on Tuesday night that that he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are favoring a possible alliance between the airline and Lufthansa. Berlusconi spoke at a news conference, saying that they are in agreement about looking at the potential of an alliance for the two airlines and that they hope it will happen.

Learn more about the carrier by visiting www.alitalia.com

After the announcement from Alitalia, Augusto Fantozzi, an expert in tax law who use to be a Finance Minister, was appointed by the government as the administrator for the airline. Fantozzi was the Economy Minister during 1995 for a government that was headed by Lamberto Dini. Then he was the Foreign Trade Minister in the cabinet of Romano Prodi the year after that. Many who are involved have kept secrets on the negotiations for saving Alitalia, but the plan appears to call for Alitalia breaking up into separate entities. This plan is the government’s latest attempt to sell their stake of 49.9 percent in the carrier, after a failing bid from Air France KLM during the spring.

Get more information at: www.alitalia.com

The government, which seeks to sell their 49.9 percent hold in the airline, is going to introduce a decree that will change the insolvency rules for allowing Alitalia to be sectioned off into two separate companies. One of the companies will be put in a special administration. Meanwhile, the other company will be purchased by the association, according to Il Sole. The paper says that the question of Lufthansa being an international partner with Alitalia is not going to be discussed just yet, but will be talked about later. They also say that Alitalia is anticipated to report a loss of more than 400 million euros upon the release of their results for the first half of the year on Friday, canceling the effect of the recent loan of 300 million euros, which was arranged by the government.

Go to www.alitalia.com for more information.

A partnership between Alitalia and Air One will then receive 1.5 billion dollars from 2 private equity firms, 5 Italian investors, and possibly from 2 Italian and 2 international banks. This should allow Silvio Berlusconi, the Prime Minister, to say that he kept his promise of keeping Alitalia in the air. This new rescue plan will avoid the company being taken over by a foreign company, but will include an arrangement for profit-sharing with a larger European airline, possibly being Lufthansa, Air France KLM, or British Airways, in order to make sure that there is a big network of intercontinental flights. Alitalia will continue to be a very powerful domestic carrier for the market in Italy, while developing in Europe and having an important agreement for profit-sharing on intercontinental routes.

Learn more at: www.alitalia.com

The Italian government, which is the owner of 49.9% of Alitalia’s shares, is working on their 3rd attempt at saving the carrier following the unsuccessful planned sale with Air France KLM. Citigroup said that a merger with a smaller Italian airline, such as Air One, seems to be their only solution now, along with grounding the aircrafts that have become obsolete, which will cut their capacity in half. They predicted that the airline would need an equity injection of 1 billion euros in order to continue operating. The bank has illustrated a rigid picture of the financial prospects for Alitalia, forecasting that they will have a 720 million euro net loss, as well as substantial write-downs for their aging fleet, this year. Citigroup also anticipates that Alitalia will report a 20% fall in revenues when they announce their 2nd quarter results in August, which will be driven by their 23% drop in traffic and cutbacks in Milan.

Find out more by visiting: www.alitalia.com

The commission stated, the option of incorporating the loan into the equity capital of the airline is targeted to help the company maintain its capital value in order to avoid filing bankruptcy and to allow the carrier to become privatized. However, they continued, the financed loan may give the airline an invalid advantage over their competitors. They also made note that due to the restructuring and rescue aid that Alitalia has benefited from, the Italian government can’t grant them anymore. The last time the government rescued the airline was in 2001, and under the rules of the European Union, Alitalia is not suppose to get anymore aid until 2011.

The European Commission said that they will do an analysis as to if a private investor would do the same as the government did in the same situation. After the decision has been officially classified under the rules of the European Union during coming days, interested parties will get the opportunity to give initial comments for one month, they added.

Visit www.alitalia.com for more information on this airline.

Alitalia has drifted into an extremely troubled state as they continue to generate more than a 943 thousand euro loss every day, not including the serious debt they suffer. Silvio Berlusconi made a promise a while back that he would go down the list of businesses that are based in Italy and the individuals of wealth to buy Alitalia from the present state it in so that the airline will stay in Italy’s hands without having to file for bankruptcy.

A move like this, however, will constantly involve that there be a certain price for the airline to pay, and Alitalia will be made to make some dramatic and painful decisions in order to make the airline profitable again. Media Sources say that Alitalia may have to cut over five thousand jobs during the upcoming months. Corrado Passera, a representative of an Italian bank who is involved in the privatization of Alitali, didn’t reject the figures outright. He did, however, observe that this idea was premature, and at the moment, is subject to mere speculation. During August is when the detailed, official rescue plan for Alitalia is anticipated to be released.

Go to www.alitalia.com to learn more or make a booking with Alitalia.

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.