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MILAN (AFX) - Paolo Alazraki, the businessman leading a group of investors ready to bid for Alitalia SpA, (Nachrichten) said the consortium has a 3 bln eur war chest to fend off the airline's bankruptcy....

...The group is composed of 16 investors, including Alazraki, and includes hedge funds, venture capitalists, banks, pension funds and an Asian airline.....

...While the identity of the Asian airline is unknown, union officials said that Alazraki's emphasis on Dubai suggested interest from the airline Emirates.


Other item of note: AZ would leave Skyteam under this scenario.



http://www.finanznachrichten.de/nach...ichten-2007-01/artikel-7563412.asp

AZ's hubs would provide an excellent location for connecting traffic to smaller destinations in the rest of Europe from the ME, Asia, and Africa.

I was talking about AZ's woes to a friend a few weeks ago and I brought it up that the Maktoums have enough liquid cash to buy AZ about 10 times over. It could be a great acquisition.

Good hubs from which to attack the EU and North America. They would probably also be able to exploit the bilaterals Italy has with many countries to get more penetration to certain countries, provided they get some good lawyers (read bullshitters) on the payroll. Can anyone say AZ/EK codeshare into YYZ to slap EY in the face when they're feeling smug?

From afar it's tricky to tell them apart as it is


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Photo © Konstantin von Wedelstaedt


YOWza

[Edited 2007-01-11 22:50:55]

Quoting YOWza (Reply 2): Good hubs from which to attack the EU and North America.

AZ's hubs offer no signficant benefit over DXB for going to North America. They aren't in a great position for collecting European traffic going across the Atlantic, nor for connecting NA passengers to multiple destinations across Europe. It does seem like a good location for NA passengers going onwards to Asia.

FCO would make a great European Hub/Jumping Point for EK. Its in an optimal position for flights from Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

I was probabely the only person on this forum persistantly defending the Alitalia assets and potential -but most people only look at medium -term strategies rather than longer term perspectives..
AZ has despite it's current trade-union related issues ,a hughe potential .Any major financial investor would focus on the potential and just get rid of the liabilities.
I predict AZ will be one of the great airlines of Europe in three years from now...

Here are three media links from today & wednesday about AZ future.


De Benedetti, others to decide today whether to bid for Alitalia - report
Alitalia suitors flying blind on job commitments
Texas Pacific rides into the bidding arena for Alitalia

Quoting Beaucaire (Reply 5): I predict AZ will be one of the great airlines of Europe in three years from now...

I truly hope so. Italy has a fantastic lesiure market, possibly unrivaled in the rest of Europe. A testament to that is DL's Italian traffic growth and the surge of flights to and from North America. Air France recently said Italy is their #2 market as did RyanAir I believe. AZ has not been taping into this success and hopefully a new owner will estore AZ's greatness.