Alitalia nears bankruptcy as staff rejects rescue plan

[jimntx]

IIRC, it would be 15 days from the offering date. I don't know if yesterday was the offering date. With Ryanair moving into FCO with a semi-hub operation, I think that lowers the interest for most potential buyers. Ryanair is hard to compete with on short and medium haul flights. And, most of the business that they will take is the intra-Italy business. There is a LOT of competition in the International arena. Italy, and specifically Rome, Florence and Venice are well-served by several airlines already.

 

[swamt]

Ok. Thx for the info.

 

[jimntx]

Now, this is typical of Alitalia employee unions. The airline is up for sale. No other airline/company/individual has publicly expressed interest in purchasing the airline. What do the unions do? They declare a one-day strike on same day as Italian ATC employees are striking. Do they think that someone (the government) is going to force some entity to buy the airline so that the employees will still have jobs?
I think this strike is more designed to give the Alitalia workers a day off with pay than to accomplish any typical union goal for its members.

http://atwonline.com/labor/alitalia...m=email&elq2=b826cf6b68b94cd2adb7201279417268

 

[jimntx]

Brief update: Ran across an on-line news article (dated mid-May) from an Italian newspaper. It said that the Bankruptcy officials expect final bids (for the sale) in October. Wonder if they think there will be a bidding war? As far as I can find, other corporations and airlines are left in a state of indifference approaching the supernatural when the subject of purchasing Alitalia comes up.

 

[jimntx]

Evidently people on this board are not getting migraines over this subject either.

 

[jimntx]

UPDATE: Proposal deadline passes. Extraordinary Administration (Bankruptcy) Managers to consider and recommend a proposal (32 received).

For instance: Ryanair submitted a proposal to provide domestic feed to Alitalia's international service, but was not interested in purchasing the airline.

http://atwonline.com/airlines/alita...m=email&elq2=cb45827ac08d4cbda8482f30fc9d0aa1

 

[FrugalFlyerv2.0]

Just saw on another website that the Alitalia special commissioners (managing what we call bankruptcy) have invited bids for sale of the airline..

I haven't heard of any rumors or even anylist trying to guess who would be good for a bid. You may have hit it again about too many airlines over there and they (airlines) will just let them go and see if they can't just pick up the leftover scraps after the fall out.

Looks like Ryanair wants some piece(s) of AZ.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...dc9a7af29f9_story.html?utm_term=.03790cb31a3a

 

[jimntx]

It will be interesting to see how the Ryanair thing works out if they actually purchase part of the airline. Notice O'leary said "Alitalia employees interested in working for Ryanair will have to work harder and strikes will not be tolerated." Alitalia employees have traditionally struck (if only for a few hours) if the wind changed direction.

 

[swamt]

I could see Ryanair picking only the parts that best suit them. A way for an LCC to grow quickly? This will be interesting going forward. Kind of wondering if Ryanair sat back to see if there would be any others to bid against.

 

[jimntx]

Here we go again! Same song, 47th verse. Alitalia pilots and flight attendants strike! Flight attendants were probably told they had to serve a beverage on flights of 3 hours or longer. Pilots strike in sympathy.

I'm not one to say "I told you so," (however, semi-colon) I [fill in the blank]. Anyone care to place a bet on how long the strike lasts before Italian government steps in with enough cash to make the strikers happy?

https://simpleflying.com/alitalia-strike-flights-cancelled/?utm_source=pop

 

[jimntx]

I'm not one to say I told you so, but in fact, I told you so. Go re-read post #3 at the beginning of this thread.

https://simpleflying.com/alitalia-italian-goverment-loan/

 

[eolesen]

I can't imagine that IAG, AF/KLM or Lufthansa Group are going to sit back and allow for nationalization of a direct competitor. At some point, the EU will step in.

 

[jimntx]

IIRC, Lufthansa did consider investment in Alitalia and decided to pass.

 

[eolesen]

Yep, and so did IAG and AFKL. To let AZ become a government subsidized/owned competitor is another issue altogether. And there's precedent to block state aid thanks to what went down between Olympic and the Greek government.

 

[jimntx]

I still think that the Italian government will find a way to slip some cash under the table to keep Alitalia flying. They've done it every time the airline started to truly go under. The Italian ego will not allow Italy to be the only major European country without a flag airline. Their best hope this time is an Air France/KLM type of arrangement, but I don't know which European airline (beside IAG) is left with enough money to do it. Also something has to be done to break the Alitalia unions. I was a good little union member while I worked for AA, but Alitalia's unions make APFA, et al look like a right-wing cabal. They go on strike if the toilet paper in the lav does not measure up to their standards. No airline can succeed with that level of uncertainty as to whether the next flight will or will not take off.