For a while there, it almost looked like Air France–KLM was actually going to buy Alitalia and dig them out of their ongoing financial problems. Alitalia has been losing $1.6 million a day for more than a year. Grant wrote about the KLM-Alitalia deal just a few weeks ago.
Unfortunately, Air France-KLM ended their negotiations with Aitalia after Alitalia’s unions balked, The Wall Street Journal reports. As a result, the Italian airline’s chairman resigned.
You could just see how this whole thing unfolded in Italy. Silvio Berlusconi, currently campaigning to become Italy’s eccentric prime minister again, thought that KLM was just not offering enough for the national pride that Alitalia is. Looking at it through KLM’s eyes, they could care less about national pride; they wanted a good investment.
Well, if Berlusconi does get reelected, one of the first things he might have to do is place Alitalia under a government-appointed organization. Air Silvio, anyone?