Alitalia's special administrator will make a last-ditch attempt to sell Italy's loss-making national airline today by public tender before calling in the liquidators after a failed rescue bid.
Alitalia faces liquidation in a matter of days after a plan to rescue the carrier by Italian investors collapsed last week when unions refused to accept its conditions. Flights continued as normal at the weekend but could be grounded in a week's time.
With Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who made an election promise to rescue the airline, acknowledging no foreign airline was about to step in and that Alitalia could be doomed to bankruptcy, the auction appears a mere formality.
"We will proceed with a public request (for offers)," the special administrator, Augusto Fantozzi, told Il Messagero daily in comments yesterday. "It will formalise what I have been doing - without any results so far - regarding the main assets."
Suffering from the high fuel prices and an economic downturn that have hit the airline sector globally, Alitalia has been on the brink of collapse for years.
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