Alitalia pilots agree to consortium deal

Italy’s national airline, Alitalia, has managed to stay in the air after its pilots’ unions agreed to a government-supported rescue plan put together by a consortium of Italian investors.

The unions that represent most of the carrier’s 2,500 pilots came to an agreement with the CAI group of investors on Friday. The airline’s ground staff approved the plan earlier in the week, which calls for the elimination of around 3,000 jobs and longer working hours.

The unions representing Alitalia’s flight attendants have reported “making some progress” and are scheduled to meet with the CAI investor group again before the end of the month.

“The agreement with pilots allows us to look at coming days with great serenity,” the Italian transport minister, Altero Matteoli, said to Sky TG24 television. “Now we can let planes take off.”

CAI intends to merge Alitalia’s flight unit with that of its domestic competitor Air One, to create an airline controlling over 50 per cent of the Italian air travel market. When it declared insolvency on 29 August, the airline was losing $3 million per day.

The carrier’s bankruptcy administrator warned that Alitalia’s operating capital would run out by the end of September. The airline is a risk of becoming the first collapse of a major European carrier since Swissair and Sabena in 2001.

Thanks to www.bloomberg.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

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