Alitalia is making itself small: half planes and half personnel for a take-off in April which includes visual navigation. The only thing that never changes are the costs for Italian taxpayers: another 3 billion to start the engines, which brings the total burden that Alitalia has placed on innocent Italian taxpayers over the years to 13 billion euros. With that money – as “la Repubblica” wittily noted – the State could have bought Air France, Iberia, British Airways and Lufthansa all together instead of bleeding to death in a high-risk bailout.
But unfortunately Alitalia is the sum of the political and trade union contradictions of the Italian case and does not cease to cause damage. The new industrialist, which was presented on Friday and which has yet to pass the scrutiny of the European Commission, is yet another attempt to relaunch and we hope that this time it will go a little better than in the past, even if the costs for taxpayers remain impressive. without any political force having the courage to propose closing a bottomless pit in skies that have long since been liberalized.
Now the new Alitalia, 100% owned by the State, will start by halving the aircraft, which will be 52, i.e. half of the current fleet, and by halving the staff, which will initially amount to 5.200-5.500 employees while half will end up in the bad company in hand to the special commissioner. In the coming years, if the situation improves and if air traffic grows, the fleet will increase and staff will increase, but the variables involved are so many and unpredictable that to say that the bet is high-risk is an understatement.
To get out of the tunnel, the new Alitalia will certainly need a new partner, initially commercial and then also industrial, to choose from among Delta, Air France-KLM and Lufthansa, but before the new company can rediscover profits, which only saw at the beginning of the new century under the Mengozzi management, never regretted enough, it will take at least three years. In the meantime it's up to Pantalone once again to pay the bill.
