The air is getting thinner and thinner for the insolvent airline Alitalia. The carrier was recently only able to pay half of the March salaries to around 10.500 employees. The money is now really tight and at the same time there are only about three weeks left to find a solution in the form of the successor Ita.

According to a report in the daily Corriere della Sera, negotiations between the EU Commission and the Italian government are still not over. The sticking points include the continued use of the Alitalia brand and the transfer of slots. The competition authorities in Brussels want a hard restart, which should also mean that Italia Trasporto Aereo must apply again for take-off and landing rights. That is exactly what Rome wants to prevent.

Alitalia has been in bankruptcy since 2017 and is only in the air due to repeated government grants and loans. Several attempts to sell failed. In the last few years, more than five billion euros flowed into the ailing airline. Italy wanted to set up the carrier on top of the newly founded ITA, but the EU Commission does not want to simply wave through the repetition of the "new foundation" this time.

Another state aid for Alitalia is in the room

The consequence of this is that it is required that Alitalia assets have to be put up for auction and that Italia Trasporto Aereo has to pay market prices for them. If the Alitalia brand and the slots at Linate Airport are to continue to be used, then these must be purchased. However, these cannot be postponed for one euro, but the insolvency administrator has to advertise them publicly and every interested person can then submit their bid.

While Alitalia is slowly running out of money, the successor Ita still does not come into the air. Now the slow action of the previous governments is likely to take revenge, because time is now massively pressing. Brussels and Rome are negotiating at full speed, but time is of the essence. Mario Draghi, Italian Prime Minister, now also brought into play that Alitalia could be given further support in order to be able to gain more time for the succession solution. In this context, too, intensive negotiations are taking place with the EU Commission. This is currently sending out signals that it is slowly but surely no longer willing to approve the ongoing state aid for the insolvent carrier.