Italy is closer to resolving the situation of keeping Alitalia from filing bankruptcy, says Claudio Scojola, the Industry Minister, and they are not ruling out probability of putting the airline under extraordinary administration, which is where the government appoints a special administrator to run a company in trouble so that it does not have to declare bankruptcy. Scajola thinks that finding a solution is very close, which will allow the company to relaunch with capital from Italy, and he added that this would prove to be useful and significant as a whole for Italy. When Scajola was asked if the carrier would be placed in extraordinary administration by Italy, he said that there are still things to be defined.

During the beginning of last year, Alitalia was up for sale by the centre-left government, however, finding a buyer for the 49.9% stake of the state failed. The centre-right government of Silvio Berlusconi, the Prime Minister, commenced the latest attempt of finding a buyer in May when they took office. They chose Intesa Sanpaolo, an Italian bank, as the adviser over the sale, and Berlusconi has said consistently that he will find a buyer for the carrier. The airline’s combative unions have helped to ruin a deal that they were making with Air France KLM earlier this year.

Scajola said, after a sign that moving under an extraordinary administration might not be impending, that he didn’t think that the cabinet would look over the law that governs the operations for companies in trouble when they meet on Friday the 25th. Previously he has said that the Marzano law will need to be changed if it is to be relevant to Alitalia.

Go to www.alitalia.com to learn more about the airline.