Sixteen investors have made an agreement to participate in a relaunch of Alitalia, which is part of that plan in saving the troubled carrier, according to news reports on Tuesday. Included in the investors is Roberto Colaninno, who is the Chairman of Piaggio, among other Italian businessmen. The reports say that the investors have developed a new company, which is called the Italian Air Company, which will take over the profitable assets of Alitalia eventually. Colaninno will be come the Chairman, and Rocco Sabelli, another veteran executive, is anticipated to become the company’s Chief Executive Officer. Some of the other investors are: Carlo Toto, Air One’s head, the Benetton family, and the Ligresti family.

On Monday, 16 businessmen met in order to talk about the potential measures for rescuing Alitalia. The plan visualizes a one billion euro cash injection, according to reports from the media. The future of Alitalia has been put on hold since the walk out of Air France KLM during discussions over them taking over Alitalia. The carrier has now been losing 200 million euros every day.

A vow has been made by Premier Silvio Berlusconi to save the carrier, keeping it in the hands of Italians. His government made Intesa Sanpaolo the adviser of trying to sell their 49.9% hold in the carrier. The government has been scheduled to have a meeting on Thursday, and they are anticipated to talk about the potential measures of saving the airline. According to reports recently, the Cabinet may talk about changes of bankruptcy protection laws. The reports said that the government is looking at breaking Alitalia into two companies. They have not announced their plans, and the center-left opposition on Tuesday renewed their call of a Parliament briefing from the Cabinet on the issue.

Learn more at: www.alitalia.com