Italian flag carrier Alitalia that has lost around €10B in the last two decades and gone through three restructurings with a clean slate in the past decade+ is getting €3B from the government to start anew.
The government is renationalizing the airline, and the goal is not to lose jobs (how this can ever work out). The new Alitalia (new corporate entity) is looking for partners (exit from the SkyTeam in the works?). It plans to focus on long-haul routes (that were money-losing for the current Alitalia).
You can access Alitalia here.
Here’s an excerpt from the Local (access their piece here):
The Italian government announced plans on Thursday to inject at least three billion euros ($3.2 billion) into Alitalia to help save it from collapse in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
Economic Development Minister Stefano Patuanelli told the Senate the money was aimed at turning the struggling company into the national airline it had been throughout much of its 74-year history.
“This is not another rescue,” Italian media quoted Patuanelli as saying. “This is the company’s relaunch.”
Conclusion
So, after three restructuring attempts and €10B+ later, the Italian government believes that the best course of action is to renationalize the airline and continue running it like nothing would have ever happened?
The government is already signaling that they don’t want to see any job losses beyond ground handling outsourced, and those employees let go. How could any airline operate profitably under government control when politicians with their interests would essentially run the show?
The problem with Alitalia is that there has always been a belief that the government will bail the entity out. Everything would continue business as usual until three to five years later, the money is again gone, and we are back to square 1.
Not sure why they cannot have a complete restart ala Sabena/Brussels Airlines, Swissair/Swiss International Airlines, and Austrian/Austrian Arrows/Austrian?
Difficult to see anything good coming out of this.