Air France Speed up talks over Alitalia
Published: 16/05/08
Air France has pushed forward its plans to make a bid for the struggling Italian airline Alitalia who was a major European operator with flights to Paris and London. The move for the airliner has been brought forward to enable the airline to be bought out (49 per cent of the airline is owned by the Italian Government) before the political crisis that is brewing there wrecks the deal entirely.
It has been reported in a number of newspapers that negotiators from both sides are set to meet very soon to draw up the final contract to buy out the Italian governments share in the airline. The plans for the deal should now be drawn up in the next 4-5 weeks rather than the 8 weeks that the two plans had first agreed upon. It has also been announced that once the initial 49 per cent has been bought, the French giant will then make a bid for the rest of the shares.
The reason for the increased move is due to the Italian government being involved in a vote of no confidence which has already seen the Italian Prime minister resign.