The key points
- Alitalia currently does not have the money to pay salaries at the end of April
- The commissioners are asking the government to advance 17 million before the EU green light
- Brussels does not give the green light to the industrial plan of the public Newco, Ita
- The plan includes 47 passenger aircraft, there would be up to 7,500 redundancies
- For the commissioners, the hypothesis of renting the “aviation” branch to Ita is “a good solution”
Alitalia has no money to pay salaries at the end of April, while the tug-of-war between the government and the EU Commission over the birth of Ita, the new public company that would be endowed with public funding of up to 3 billion euros, continues. “The lack of refreshments combined with the fact that from November onwards the only thing that has arrived is the second wave of Covid, lead to this situation of great financial difficulty for the extraordinary administration”, Alitalia commissioner Giuseppe told the Chamber Leogrande, who underlined “the slow start of Ita”.
Three points of contrast with the EU
On the industrial plan of Ita, there are meetings between the three ministers applied to the dossier, Giorgetti (Economic development), Franco (Economy) and Giovannini (Infrastructures), in contact by videoconference with Brussels. But there is no agreement, even if the intention is to close the dossier quickly otherwise Alitalia will have to put the planes on the ground. There are three points of disagreement. The first is the name and the brand, the EU does not want the new company to adopt the name of Alitalia, at least for two years, while the brand should be auctioned (“it is in the budget for 150 million euros”, he called Leogrande). The second point is the stew, the EU does not want Ita to have maintenance and handling activities.
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Linate slots
The third point of contrast are the Linate slots. According to Brussels, the new company must lose half of Alitalia’s current slots (which has 67% of all slots in the Milanese airport). If this happens, the slots, i.e. the landing and take-off slots, would be reassigned to other competing airlines, including Ryanair, easyJet, Lufthansa, Volotea.
Ita wants 47 planes, 7,500 redundancies
Ita’s plan is confirmed with only 47 departing passenger aircraft, less than half of Alitalia’s current fleet (104 aircraft). According to indiscretions, there are 7,500 potential redundancies out of the 11 thousand current employees of the company, of which over 6,800 in layoffs. Even 100 pilots are in cigs, in rotation. The hypothesis on which the government is working is a direct negotiation between the commissioners and Ita for the sale of the «aviation» branch, ie Alitalia’s sole flight activity. Airport services (handling) and maintenance, as already mentioned, according to the EU should be sold to third parties. The government asks that Ita be able to have at least a share, to be specified as the entity, in the consortia purchasing these assets.
“Make it very soon”
“We must act quickly, indeed very early to secure the company” and make Ita operational, said Daniele Santosuosso, one of the new commissioners that Giorgetti joined Leogrande, audited by the Transport commissions of the Chamber and Senate together with Leogrande and to the third commissioner, the labor lawyer Gabriele Fava. “We are managing, albeit under extreme conditions, and doing everything possible and impossible in order to optimize and reduce costs to the bone,” said Santosuosso. “It is essential to resolve the issue of relations with Ita not early but ad horas,” he stressed.