But when unions and management negotiated a rescue plan involving 1,600 layoffs, an 8 percent pay cut
and more working days a year in exchange for €2 billion in new financing, employees rejected it.
Alitalia Files for Bankruptcy, but Italy Balks at a Third Bailout -
By LIZ ALDERMANMAY 2, 2017
When the Italian airline Alitalia went bankrupt in 2008, the government swooped in with taxpayer money
and Pope Benedict — a regular rider — offered the carrier a blessing.
After the Italian government approved the bankruptcy filing on Tuesday, Alitalia will be put into the hands of special administrators
charged with devising a last-ditch plan to turn around the carrier within 180 days, sell it, or put it into liquidation.
But on Tuesday, even a papal decree would not have been enough to save Alitalia from what threatened to be its final stand, as Europe’s most troubled airline filed for bankruptcy once more, this time amid signs
that the government, and the Italian people, were fed up from providing life support.
Alitalia, which sustained losses for most of the last decade, had started to become profitable again in
recent years after the government negotiated a 2014 rescue by Etihad, a carrier based in Abu Dhabi.
