ROME, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Italian Economic Development Minister Luigi Di Maio on Friday launched a new public-private industrial plan for troubled airline Alitalia ahead of an Oct. 31 deadline for tenders from possible investors.
The Italian carrier has been under government receivership since May last year after going bankrupt due to debt of "about three billion euros", according to legal documents posted on its corporate website.
It has been kept flying ever since thanks to a bridge loan of 900 million euros (about one billion U.S. dollars) extended by the previous center-left administration of former prime minister Paolo Gentiloni.
Di Maio's plan involves setting up a new company "with initial capital of 1.5-2 billion euros" and three stakeholders: the Italian Treasury, state-owned Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) railways, and "an important international industrial partner", the minister told Il Sole 24 Ore financial daily in a front-page interview.
Asked whether having two public stakeholders might clash with European Union rules on state aid, Di Maio replied that his government envisions a level of state ownership similar to that of "France, (which) owns 14.3 percent of Air France".
Also on Friday, Di Maio met with trade union delegates to discuss the plan.
In a statement after that meeting, Di Maio said he has promised to "safeguard employment levels" at the carrier, which, according to legal documents posted on its website, employed 11,762 people as of April 2017.
Of these, 1,480 were laid off after the airline went bankrupt last year: their unemployment insurance runs out on Oct. 31, as does the national collective bargaining employment contract for the sector, Fabrizio Cuscito from Filt-CGIL trade union told Xinhua.
Labor delegates present at the meeting were "moderately satisfied" with Di Maio's plan, Cuscito said.
"He reassured us from the employment standpoint," said Cuscito, who is the national air transport coordinator at Filt-CGIL union.
"Alitalia definitely needs a private partner, because it can't make it on its own," Cuscito continued. "But we are also in favor of a public stakeholder, because that will guarantee that the rules will be respected."
In June this year, Alitalia reported its passenger revenues increased by 10.6 percent compared to June 2017. The double-digit increase was driven by all sectors: national, international and intercontinental flights, the airline said in a statement.
The Italian carrier went bankrupt last year after a 2014 rescue by the United Arab Emirates carrier Etihad, which bought a 49-percent stake in the troubled company. Italian shareholders, led by UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo banks, controlled the remaining 51 percent.
However, Alitalia saw its profits eroded by competition from low-cast carriers, and the new management failed to turn it around.
A last-ditch effort to recapitalize the airline failed in early 2017, after a majority of Alitalia employees nixed a government-mediated restructuring plan that was approved by management and unions and which called for just under 1,000 redundancies, wage cuts, and shorter holidays.
Alitalia, whose maiden flight was in 1947, currently has a fleet of 120 planes, of which 25 are long-haul carriers.
