{"id":4010,"date":"2019-03-13T10:04:06","date_gmt":"2019-03-13T15:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planesintheair.com\/?p=4010"},"modified":"2019-03-13T10:04:12","modified_gmt":"2019-03-13T15:04:12","slug":"alitalia-rescue-at-risk-as-suitors-set-conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/?p=4010","title":{"rendered":"Alitalia Rescue at Risk as Suitors Set Conditions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ROME\n (Reuters) – Delta Air Lines and easyJet have set strict conditions for \ninvesting in Alitalia that could jeopardise a government-led plan to \nrescue the troubled Italian airline, a source close to the matter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alitalia was put under special administration in 2017 after workers rejected the latest in a long line of rescue plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Italy’s\n populist government, which has made the re-launch of the flagship \ncarrier one of its priorities, is sponsoring a plan that would see \nstate-owned railway Ferrovie inject fresh funds and revamp the carrier \ntogether with industrial partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delta\n and easyJet, which have expressed interest in Alitalia, are in talks \nwith Ferrovie, but the three investors do not see eye to eye on the \nstructure of the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without\n an industrial partner fully on board, Alitalia could soon find itself \nin trouble since neither Ferrovie nor the state have the skills to run \nthe carrier, the source said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EasyJet\n has said several times it is interested in Alitalia’s short-haul \noperations and positions at primary airports, adding the alliance should\n be commercially viable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\n British low-cost carrier would be open to taking a stake of 15 percent \nin the Italian airline but only if it wins control of certain Alitalia \nassets, the source said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\n condition has irritated the three special commissioners in charge of \nthe airline, who fear it could lead to a break-up of the company. The \nadministrators have the power to decide on the offers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At\n the same time Delta is also planning to take a 15 percent stake, \nspending around 100 million euros in the proposed 900 million euro \n(773.6 million pounds) rescue plan, but does not want to inject more \nthan that, the source said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\n participation of 30 percent or less by the industrial partners, \ncompared with a stake of around 40 percent Ferrovie was counting on, \nwould force the government to find additional investors, probably among \nstate-controlled companies, a second source said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ferrovie\n is expected to take a stake of between 30 and 49 percent in the new \ncarrier, the second source said, making a full involvement of Delta and \neasyJet crucial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According\n to Italian newspaper Il Messaggero, Ferrovie CEO Gianfranco Battisti \nwill fly to Atlanta in the coming days to try to convince Delta’s CEO Ed\n Bastian to pump more money into the rescue plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ferrovie, easyJet declined to comment on the issue, while Delta was not immediately available for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ferrovie\n is racing against the clock to meet a March 31 deadline set by the \nItalian government to present a rescue plan for Alitalia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should\n that deadline be missed, it would jeopardise the repayment of 900 \nmillion euro state loan to the airline, which must take place by the end\n of June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(By Giselda Vagnoni. Additional reporting by Francesca Landini in Milan, Alistair Smout in London, Tracy Rucinski in Chicago, Writing by Francesca Landini; Editing by Keith Weir)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Delta Air Lines and easyJet have set strict conditions for investing in Alitalia that could jeopardise a government-led plan to rescue the troubled Italian airline, a source close to the matter said. Alitalia was put under special administration in 2017 after workers rejected the latest in a long line of rescue plans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[797,89,2203,1397,868,1103],"tags":[1690,539,420,92,257,3642,624,1925,1024,3740,1924,246,419,3640,3643,3649,2420,3742,2063,1931,540,1923,412,1557,310,1288,3072,3743,2132,3741],"class_list":["post-4010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-airline-news","category-aviation-news","category-finance-news","category-stock-news","category-transportation-news","category-travel-news","tag-administration","tag-air","tag-airline","tag-airport","tag-alitalia","tag-bastian","tag-british","tag-carrier","tag-ceo","tag-conditions","tag-cost","tag-delta","tag-easyjet","tag-ed","tag-ferrovie","tag-flagship","tag-haul","tag-investing","tag-italian","tag-italy","tag-lines","tag-low","tag-news","tag-operations","tag-railway","tag-reuters","tag-rome","tag-short","tag-special","tag-troubled"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4010"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4012,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4010\/revisions\/4012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}