Hints and tips:
...It comes after Lufthansa agreed to take a 41 per cent stake in ITA Airways, the successor company to Alitalia, the now-insolvent flag-carrier back in May....
...The Rome government has already been working with Margrethe Vestager, the EU competition chief, on a deal to allow a new airline to be created that will be independent of Alitalia....
...ITA, the airline formerly known as Alitalia, has been nationalised and is seeking a buyer....
...“I’m sorry Alitalia will [rebrand], it’s been like a family for all these years, an expensive family, but nevertheless a family,” prime minister Mario Draghi said last year as he announced privatisation...
...Germany’s Lufthansa and Swiss-Italian shipping conglomerate MSC have expressed an interest in acquiring a majority stake in ITA Airways, the successor to bankrupt Alitalia, in a sign of how the coronavirus...
...Under a deal with the European Commission, ITA will be economically independent and will not be liable for any illegal state aid received by Alitalia in recent years....
...A US ban on European travellers flying from Europe remains in place....
...How do you solve a problem like Alitalia? Italy’s perennially lossmaking national airline has been a thorn in the side of governments for decades....
...“We are not providing [state] aid to the [Alitalia airline], but for the management of a sale process that unfortunately has taken a very long time,” Mr Patuanelli said....
...“The conditions that need to be met in order for Atlantia to be able to take part in a consortium, set up to put together a binding offer for Alitalia, do not as yet exist,” Atlantia said in a statement....
...Last week Rome approved an injection of a further €400m into Alitalia after no private sector bidders emerged to take over the airline....
...Atlantia intends to inject about €300m to acquire a stake of about 30 per cent in a new holding company led by Ferrovie and the Italian finance ministry that would control Alitalia, a person familiar with...
...This year Mr Castellucci will forgo his usual yachting holiday to write a new business plan for Alitalia, according to aides....
...Atlantia could acquire a stake of about 30 per cent in a new holding company that would take charge of overhauling Alitalia....
...Between now and then, Italy is likely to hold a general election in which the fate of Alitalia could emerge as a sensitive subject....
...At the same time, the government has been in talks with the UK’s easyJet and US Delta about both companies taking a stake in a newly recapitalised, reorganised and relaunched Alitalia....
...EasyJet cautioned that there was “no certainty” it would proceed with a transaction to buy a stake in Alitalia....
...EasyJet said it had submitted a revised expression of interest for a restructured Alitalia with a proposal that was consistent with its “existing strategy for Italy”....
...The Brussels inquiry has added a layer of complication to Alitalia’s sale process, which began last year and has already suffered repeated delays....
...Brussels is investigating whether €900m in bridging loans to Alitalia from the Italian government were illegal under the bloc’s state aid rules....
...Watch out for Alitalia syndrome If Mr Macron would like to see another example of a failing state-owned airline, he need only turn his eyes south-east....
...AF-KLM’s arrival on the scene marks a new twist in the long-running saga surrounding the fate of Alitalia, turning control of Italy’s skies into a key battleground in the European airline sector....
...A change of hands at Alitalia in the middle of a general election campaign risked being a liability for the ruling centre-left Democratic party (PD), which is facing a tough battle to stay in control from...
...The demise of Monarch Airlines is the third time a European carrier has had to file for bankruptcy in the past six months. Before the UK operator came Germany’s Air Berlin and Italy’s Alitalia....
...Based on the interest so far, there is growing confidence inside Alitalia of a successful auction process....
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