Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has tasked his undersecretary Gianni Letta with finding a solution to break the stalemate at Alitalia, amid suggestions from Berlusconi himself that the airline's current management is ready to step down if required.
Berlusconi was quoted by an Italian newswire, during a visit to Athens, as saying that the current management is willing to go to this extreme if it would be useful to the airline's future.
While he stressed that no decision had been made, Berlusconi has given Letta the task of presenting the cabinet with ways to break the deadlock over the airline's recovery plan.
Alitalia has been in limbo since the turn of the year. The airline's management, led by chief executive Francesco Mengozzi, has developed a business plan designed to reverse spiralling losses, counter reduced revenues and take the carrier into the black. A turnaround in its financial performance is a key condition to Alitalia's achieving its aim of joining the Air France and KLM partnership.
But the controversy surrounding the 1,500 job cuts included in the plan - which has prompted high-profile protests by Italy's powerful unions - has forced the carrier to suspend the implementation of the cuts, stalling its recovery.
Source: Flight Daily News
