Alitalia’s last unions back bailout

Italy’s national airline Alitalia has avoided collapse by winning grudging support for an investor bailout from its last two hold-out trade unions.

After a series of meeting, the unions representing cabin crew and ground staff, signed the deal. But the head of the Avia trade union, Antonio Divietri, said it was done with a heavy heart: “We have nothing to celebrate. For us, this is a moment of reflection and painful. One third of our colleagues are going to lose their jobs. So, we have signed this deal just because we are being responsible.

Without the agreement of all the unions, the airline would have run out of money very soon. It has a little as 30 million euros left and is losing more than two million a day. The new owners will take on 1.2 billion euros of debt and pay one billion for the company. The Italian consortium CAI did make some concessions to the unions to get their final agreement. Alitalia will now be reborn after being merged with its domestic rival Air One.

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