Italy’s stricken national airline is being put up for auction. Alitalia’s special administrator Augusto Fantozzi is offering the airline out to public tender in the absence of any foreign carrier coming to its rescue.

The move is a last-ditch attempt to sell the loss-making carrier after the collapse of a business consortium’s rescue bid late last week.

Alitalia faces liquidation in a matter of days following the refusal by unions to accept conditions demanded by the group of Italian investors.

The Italian Transport Minister, Altero Matteoli, believes there is one last lifeline.

“It is no longer possible to re-open negotiations. Just one thing is still possible though, and that is that the unions sign the last agreement so the government could try to get back the CAI business consortium,” he told reporters.

Flights continued as normal over the weekend but aircraft could be grounded in a week’s time over liquidity fears.

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