AAirlines

Italy will meet with EU to find solution for Alitalia.

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The Italian government reaffirmed Friday its willingness to find a solution for the airline Alitalia, in bankruptcy since May 2017 for its financial problems, and next week will hold a meeting with the European Commission to address its crisis situation.

See also: Czech Airlines, one the oldest airlines in the world, declares insolvency.

This has been confirmed by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development in a note, after the meeting held this Friday between the head of this ministry, Giancarlo Giorgetti; that of Transport, Enrico Giovannini; and that of Economy, Daniele Franco, EFE reported.

The three will talk next week with Commission Vice-President Margrethe Vestager about the crisis situation of the airline, which has been late in paying the salaries of its 11,000 workers for months due to a lack of liquidity.

See also: Volotea moving towards a 100% Airbus fleet.

“We have evaluated the possibility of continuing the Ita project (the new healthy company to be born from the former Alitalia) and expressed the desire to have a national airline,” the three ministers wrote in a joint note.

“The procedure requires the involvement of the Parliament, which will have to express itself on Ita’s industrial plan, and of the European Commission, to which proposals for the resolution of still open issues will be submitted,” they added.

The Italian government said last March that it wanted to nationalize Alitalia and create a new company to be called Ita, but the project raises doubts in Brussels in relation to regulations on state bailouts for companies in crisis.

The European Commission has asked Italy to ask Alitalia to develop a real tender, at market prices and open to competition, to sell its assets, and not to cede them directly to Ita.

Alitalia has received in recent years two state loans to ensure its operability for a total of 1.3 billion euros, which the Commission is investigating to clarify whether they comply with European regulations on state aid.

Italy’s project has to convince the Commission that Ita will be a new company, with discontinuity of the former Alitalia, and not the same company rescued and with another name.

This point is also fundamental in the event that Brussels finally confirms that the 1.3 billion euros given to Alitalia have been State aid, because if Ita is a new company, the old administration should return the aid, something practically impossible; but if not, Ita itself would have to be the one to return the money and would be placed in a position of extreme difficulty before even deploying its business.

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