ROME (AP) – Alitalia is expected to start bankruptcy procedures after employees rejected proposed salary cuts and layoffs cuts aimed at saving Italy’s financially troubled flagship airline.
The company’s board said Tuesday that “given the impossibility of recapitalization” it has decided to “begin procedures foreseen by law,” a reference to extraordinary administration. An Alitalia statement said the board will meet Thursday to discuss the move.
Such a scenario could result in shedding unprofitable routes, likely domestic ones, and selling off airliners.
In results announced Monday, some two-thirds of employees in a referendum nixed the industrial plan the government had linked to Alitalia’s survival. Alitalia has been losing 2 million euros ($2.2 million) daily.
For decades, various industrial plans have failed to definitively relaunch Alitalia.