Three interested in Alitalia

photo by WTL photos

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi recently said that Air France/KLM, Lufthansa, and Italian domestic carrier Air One were interested in making a bid for struggling Alitalia. (Previously interested Aeroflot has already quit the bidding.) All bidders have until December 6 to make a non-binding offer. In an interview with the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Lufthansa CEO Wolfgang Mayrhruber said that "Alitalia has big and barely manageable problems. We are studying whether we can find a recipe (to fix these) and make a bid."

It should be pointed out that Alitalia is losing about 1 million euros a day and is affected by frequent strikes (both inside and outside of the company). If one of those airlines is going to make a bid for Alitalia, they'll have to deal with "big and barely manageable problems" indeed.

Aeroflot says 'nyet' to Alitalia

photo courtesy albspotter

Russian carrier Aeroflot has withdrawn from the bidding process for Italian airline Alitalia, ending months of speculation of a possible takeover. In a press release, Aeroflot said, "Aeroflot believes that acquiring Alitalia under the current conditions would not be the right decision for it to take."

According to the airline, two reasons that led to the decision were the fact that Aeroflot did not get access to "critical information" regarding the "commercial and operational aspects of Alitalia’s business to confidently formulate a well supported business proposal to successfully restructure Alitalia". Another reason: "The conditions and requirements outlined for the privatization process would significantly limit the ability of Aeroflot to implement what Aeroflot believes to be the necessary measures to re-launch Alitalia."

This leaves Lufthansa-backed Italian carrier Air One as the only airline left in the bidding as of now.