The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has said there are ''no obstacles'' to the transition from the old Alitalia to a new one that will take its place.
''We had a constructive meeting and I believe we set the stage for a happy ending to this project,'' IATA Chairman Giovanni Bisignani said.
Bisignani, a former Alitalia chairman, made his remarks after meeting here with Rocco Sabelli, the CEO of an Italian investor group poised to acquire Alitalia's flight operations - Compagnia Aerea Italiana (CAI) - as well as with Alitalia's government-appointed administrator Augusto Fantozzi and the head of Italy's civil aviation authority ENAC, Vito Riggio.
In order to clear the way for the 'new' Alitalia to take off in December, Sabelli met Wednesday with Italy's antitrust watchdog to review the merger of Alitalia's flight operations with those of CAI partner Air One, Italy's biggest private airline.
CAI confirmed on Thursday that it would offer a total of 990 million euros for the assets it wants from Alitalia to create a new airline.
The sum includes 275 million euros in cash and the assumption of 625 million euros in debt, accumulated through aircraft acquisitions, prepaid tickets and other debts. CAI is also ready to shell out an additional 90 million euros for the carrier's service unit Alitalia Servizi (57 million euros), its airport operations Alitalia Airport (seven million euros), its regional carrier Alitalia Express (19 million euros) and its budget airline Volare (17 million euros) CAI will pay for Alitalia's assets in installments with a first payment of 100 million euros at the signing of the acquisition contract, expected November 30. According to ENAC chief Riggio, the future national carrier will be able to have all Alitalia's slots in Italy and most but not all of its international ones. At 17 million euros, Alitalia will be selling Volare, which includes the two carriers Volareweb.com and Air Europe, as a loss considering it paid 38 million euros for it in 2006.
