On one side Paris. On the other a route to the east, to save the tricolor. Great chaos in the skies Alitalia, on the eve of the Board of Directors in which the possible entry of a new shareholder should be decided. All eyes are focused on Air France, but Salvatore Mancuso, vice president of the Italian company, expresses a preference for a Middle Eastern solution, which would allow the company to be kept in Italian hands: that of Etihad.
With Air France, there would be no future for Alitalia – Mancuso said – The ideal partner is Etihad, which “would take on a minority stake, allowing the company to maintain stable control in Italian hands”.
“Reducing Fiumicino airport to a third hub with little more than a regional role causing the loss of thousands of jobs, erasing the name of Italy from major routes, preventing the development of Alitalia in Africa, a country that is preparing to become a large market. All of this is unacceptable,” Mancuso said in an interview with Il Messaggero, referring to the French.
Having rejected the transalpine hypothesis, the Alitalia vice president points to the east: “Aeroflot is undoubtedly a good opportunity. But I think Etihad would give Alitalia a few more chances. First of all, it would favor a mutual supply of the respective hubs through the channeling of flows from South East Asia to Rome. It is obvious that in this scenario, Etihad would have an interest, unlike Air France, in the development of Rome airport considering it the reference hub on the European continent".
