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Last-ditch move to sell Alitalia
Evening Standard 22 Sep 2008
Alitalia's special administrator will make a
last-ditch attempt today to sell Italy's loss-making national airline before calling in the liquidators.
The airline may have days to survive after unions rejected a rescue plan last week.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi made saving Alitalia an election pledge, but now admits no foreign carrier wants to touch it.
"We will proceed with a public request for offers," the special administrator, Augusto Fantozzi, said.
"It will formalise what I have been doing - without any results so far despite all my efforts —regarding the main assets."
Alitalia has lurched from crisis to crisis for years but high fuel costs and the economic slump may now finally see it off.
It has already been hit by confidence issues around the world with a Tel Aviv court reportedly ordering the seizure of $500,000 (£273,000) of the airline's money for fuel bills owed to Israel Airports.
Berlusconi has said Alitalia must stay in Italian hands.
