Alitalia Files for Bankruptcy

After reporting a net debt of nearly 1.2 million euros ($1.7 million) at the end of July, Italy’s flag carrier airline Alitalia filed for bankruptcy on August 29. The beleaguered company had received an emergency loan of 300 million euros ($439 million) in April from the Italian government, which owns 49.9 percent of its national airline, but even these were not enough to keep the planes flying.

As reported by Guy Dinmore in the Financial Times, the company’s investors hope to merge Alitalia with Air One, a smaller rival. The BBC reported on Friday that “both Air France KLM and Lufthansa have expressed interest in investing in any new entity which emerges from the current business.” By Tuesday, British Airways had also expressed interest in a partnership with the resurrected company.