Alitalia adviser to meet BA on rescue plan: report

September 06 06:05:01 AM, Yahoo News

A British Airways aircraft taxis past BA tail-fins at Heathrow Airport, west London, July 29, 2008. (Toby Melville/Reuters)

Reuters - Alitalia's (AZPIa.MI) adviser will soon present its rescue plan for the airline to British Airways , considered by Italy as a possible foreign partner for the bankrupt airline, an executive told a newspaper.

"Soon we will present the plan to British Airways as well," an executive at Intesa Sanpaolo, (ISP.MI) the Italian bank behind the plan, said in an interview published in business daily Il Sole 24 Ore on Saturday.

Gaetano Micciche, who heads the bank's corporate and investment banking division, has already presented the plan to Air France-KLM (AIRF.PA) and Lufthansa (LHAG.DE), and he said he had got a positive response from both airlines.

British Airways, which has agreed to a tie-up with Iberia (IBLA.MC) and American Airlines (AMR.N), would not consider a partnership with Alitalia, an industry source earlier said.

Air France-KLM, whose takeover of Alitalia fell apart this year over union opposition, however has said it is ready to take a minority stake in a revived carrier.

Lufthansa, which is also looking at Austrian Airlines (AUAV.VI), has always said Italy was an important market for it.

Finding a foreign alliance for Alitalia after its restructuring is considered key for the success of the rescue plan, which foresees Italian investors buying its best parts and relaunching it as a smaller, more efficient carrier.

Intesa Sanpaolo's chief executive on Saturday reiterated -- as the government has also said -- that a partnership would never lead to a foreign airline getting a majority stake.

"The idea that Air France-KLM could have the majority is groundless," Corrado Passera told reporters at a business conference near this lakeside town north of Milan.

"It has never been discussed nor has it been put on the table," he said. "A majority stake (held by a foreign airline) has been excluded."

The bank had earlier denied a report in France's La Tribune that said Air France-KLM could become a majority owner of Alitalia within five years. Italy's government has also stressed the airline will remain under Italian control and foreign partners can only buy a minority stake.

Earlier this week, a group of 16 Italian financiers and businessmen brought together by Intesa Sanpaolo confirmed its interest in some of Alitalia's assets to the administrator overseeing the airline after it filed for bankruptcy protection.

The group plans to merge the assets with those of domestic rival Air One to relaunch Alitalia after an unsuccessful two-year hunt for a buyer.

Also at Cernobbio, the chairman of Milan's airports operator SEA said the company was willing to reduce the damages it is seeking in a lawsuit against Alitalia or scrap it altogether depending on what the rescue plan bodes for Malpensa airport.

SEA filed the lawsuit seeking 1.2 billion euros after Alitalia decided to cut back its presence at the Malpensa hub.

EU's Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani, attending the same conference, said his office would need a few weeks for evaluating a government decree that changed bankruptcy law and suspended antitrust rules to facilitate Alitalia's rescue.

(Additional reporting by Gabriella Bruschi at Cernobbio and Gilles Castonguay in Milan)

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