There will be some airlines that will survive anything. Be it takeovers, sales, massive yearly losses and changing uniforms when they’re in bankruptcy protection.
Everyone’s favourite carrier- Alitalia – like the last survivor of anything has escaped the claws of bankruptcy and is set be bailed out by the Italian Government.
Alitalia Airbus A320 at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport – Image, Economy Class and Beyond.
Renationalisoning Alitalia will set the Italian government back up to 600 million euros – with the bill to be footed by the Italian taxpayer.
The plan was outlined in a government decree published late on Monday night.
With the planned sale abandoned thanks to the joy of Covid-19/Human Malware, any buyers were scared off from it it seems.
Scaring investors off
Alitalia has been in bankruptcy protection ever since its employees rejected a rescue plan by Etihad (who promptly pulled their funding for the airline). Since then, the airline has been living on loans, whilst trying to dodge EU Commission investigations if the airline has been getting state aid.
With no one wanting to invest and the Italian Government desperate to keep the airline alive.
Comment
If you’re honestly surprised at the Italian Government coming in to save the airline, you haven’t paid attention to the saga of Alitalia. Whilst I am firmly in the camp of letting it go, it seems that Italy can’t part ways with their flag carrier and would rather save it.
Oddly, with a government guarantee, Alitalia may come out of this as a survivor, whilst other airlines go to the wall without aid or without funds to survive.
There will still be some of the problems to deal with that Alitalia has – such as its workforce, its network and it being attacked from above by Lufthansa and below by Ryanair…
… but it will be an Italian Government problem to sort out.
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