Alitalia canceled ten flights on Otopeni airport

Ten Alitalia flights, departures and arrivals on Otopeni Airport were canceled yesterday. Passengers were taken over by other companies. In the afternoon the carrier returned to the cancellation of the evening flights, they following to be still conducted with Alitalia aircraft. According to the representatives of the company, today's flights were to be made in normal regime, less the one of Milan, at 8 o'clock. They announced the cancellation was made because of "operational reasons", while representatives of Otopeni Airport were informed that the cancellation was made because of "commercial reasons".

Article Translated by:
NiC Translation Agency

Since the beginning of last week the company has announced that there are no more guarantees for carrying out flights, due to a lack of fuel. Alitalia company is near bankruptcy due to debts of 1.2 billion euros accumulated in the past nine years. Each day brings operating loss of approximately two million euros. The special administrator of Alitalia announced on Monday that potential buyers of the company or of its assets may submit bids until September 30, transmits Reuters.

Cancellation of flights was a "local problem" caused by the refusal of a service provider to comply with the contract.The financial problems of Alitalia air carrier begin to have an effect on commercial flights in Romania. All flights were canceled yesterday, and passengers were redirected to other air carriers with whom the company had agreements. Alitalia is on the verge of bankruptcy due to debts of 1.2 billion euros accumulated in the past nine years.

Ten Alitalia flights, departures and arrivals on the Otopeni Airport were canceled yesterday. Passengers were taken over by other companies. In the afternoon the carrier returned to the cancellation of the evening flights, they following to be still conducted with Alitalia aircraft. According to the representatives of the company, today's flights were to be made in the normal regime. They announced the cancellation was made because of "operational reasons", while representatives of Otopeni Airport were informed that the cancellation was made because of "commercial reasons". The last official announcement on the Alitalia site is dated September 5^th. According to it, Alitalia will continue to operate flights in accordance with the schedule. Since the beginning of the past week the company has announced that there are more guarantees for carrying out flights, due to a lack of fuel. Alitalia Company is near bankruptcy. The special administrator of Alitalia announced on Monday, that the potential buyers of the company or of its assets may submit bids until September 30^th, transmits Reuters. They may cover certain assets or the entire company, according to an announcement posted on the company's website.

Sale or rather liquidation

The liquidation of the company takes place after, a consortium of Italian investors withdrew its takeover offer last week, as a result of the failure of negotiations with trade unions to launch activity. Augusto Fantozzi, manager of Alitalia, appointed by the Italian Government has contacted Air France, Lufthansa and British Airways in connection with the acquisition of the assets of Alitalia operator, but all companies have refused to advance a bid. Air France-KLM and has expressed interest to take a share of 10 to 20% of the capital of Alitalia. Air France - KLM already owns 2% of Alitalia.

Italy has given Alitalia, a credit of 300 million euros this year, so the group can continue the flights. Alitalia has not recorded profit since 1999 and is currently losing about two million euros per day. Liabilities totaled 1.2 billion euros in July. The state owns 49.9% of the shares.

The efforts of the authorities to sell the company were hit by the strength of unions that have not agreed with the measures of reducing costs. Among the measures sought by the investors there was a 20% reduction of salaries.