Alitalia closes the June-October quarter with a positive EBITDA and find liquidity. The second semester, commissioner Luigi Gubitosi anticipates in the Chamber, will confirm the positive margin while “at the end of the year, available cash will be around 800 million. Yesterday it stood at 849 million“, he specified, underlining that “almost all the public loan is still available” (900 million) and that Alitalia has a “deposit of 118 million at Iata, which will be returned” to the company. "In the last 10 years, Alitalia has never had so much cash on hand," noted Gubitosi.
In the June-October period revenues amounted to 1.432,9 million. “In 2017 we're about 1% up taking the whole year. For the first time in the last 4 years there should be a stabilization and an indication of a slightly positive trend,” Gubitosi said.
Also in the June-October period, added the manager, the net result was negative for 31,3 million, 20,9 million excluding interest on the government loan.
Gubitosi also said that in 2018 the company expects "a 9% increase in productivity in terms of hours flown" compared to 2017 and that it will return to fly to Africa. Starting with "Johannesburg, old traditional route" and "Nairobi, we are still waiting for some authorizations but we should be able to confirm it".
Gubitosi once again denied the details circulated in the press regarding Lufthansa's offer: “We have never seen that plan. It has never been delivered to us."
The government extended the deadline for the sale of Alitalia to 30 April 2018 and extended the bridge loan to give oxygen to the company until 30 September, bringing it to 900 million from 600.
