Silvio Berlusconi given Monday deadline to save Alitalia
In a final throw of the dice it has been revealed that the Italian Civil Aviation Authority has stepped in to try and arrange a last minute rescue for Alitalia, with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi now under intense pressure to broker a deal before Monday. Despite expectation that the group would be out of business today it seems that there may be an outside chance of a government led bailout despite earlier denials. But will it happen?
The Italian unions are livid that the company looks like going to the wall and have mounted a serious campaign to get the government involved. They have already scuppered one deal after refusing to sign up to a large number of job loses. If the government does not manage to save the airline there will be an awful lot of fingers pointing at the unions who had the chance to get involved in a rescue just two days ago.
Many had expected a larger European counterpart to come in at the last minute to mop up the pieces but it seems that money is tight everywhere at the moment and many corporate deals have already been put on ice.
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