Italy's state airline Alitalia went bankrupt because it suffered from ''illusions of grandeur'' and acted way beyond its means, according to the carrier's government-appointed administrator.
''Alitalia was much too big and costly for the amount of revenue it was capable of generating,'' Augusto Fantozzi said in an interview to appear in the upcoming edition of the Italian weekly Espresso.
''Alitalia paid three times as much for everything. If a crew had to be picked up three cars were sent, on the grounds that one could get a flat tire and another suffer engine failure. A total waste of money,'' he added.
Fantozzi admitted that Alitalia's unions complicated his efforts to sell the airline's flight operations, after it was declared bankrupt in August, because they were ''more interested in a power play''.
''The unions were playing games, some agreeing to conditions for a sale while others held out for better conditions,'' he explained.
''The pilots made the biggest mistake. They could have seen their professionalism rewarded but preferred to lock horns in a power struggle, a battle to see who was stronger than whom. This instead of making a case of how indispensable they were,'' Fantozzi added.
The ANPAC pilots union, he observed, ''was its own worst enemy''.
Now that Alitalia's flight division has been sold to Compagnia Aerea Italiana (CAI), a group of private Italian investors, Fantozzi is now left with the task of selling or liquidating Alitalia's other assets.
The administrator admitted that the airline's debts were far greater than the value of its assets and recalled that its accounts were the subject of several judicial investigations.
''Debts total some 3.2 billion euros. Aside from what we get from CAI (1.052 billion euros), we can count on the revenue from the sale of the cargo business, maintenance services and call centers... for a total of some 500-700 million euros,'' Fantozzi said.
''Then we have land at (Rome's) Fiumicino airport and five or six apartments around the world,'' he added.
Fantozzi said that the creditors who will be paid first will be those who continued to supply Alitalia with goods and services after it was declared bankrupt and that ''everything after August 29 will be paid''.
In regard to Alitalia's shareholders, Fantozzi recalled that ''the Treasury has promised some compensation. It will be up to (Economy Minister Giulio) Tremonti to decide just how much''.
Alitalia bond holders, he added, ''will be treated like the stockholders, even though I think they deserve greater protection''.
It may take as much as seven years to totally liquidate the national carrier, ''although I hope to take care of the lion's share long before then,'' Fantozzi said.
As far as his own compensation was concerned, Fantozzi said ''I'm not greedy but I'm no fool either and I have no intention of working for free''.
In regard to the controversial figure of 15 million euros cited by the press, Fantozzi said ''it could be that but it could also be less. The amount will take into consideration how much debt there was, what the value of the assets were and how much I am able to recover. The premier's office must still decide how much I get''.
