eta unknown wrote:Even more interesting is that Draghi ("help AZ, but not at any cost!) is personally involved with the discussions (probably because he knows the EU has rejected the previous plan) whereas his predecessor ("we must save jobs") delegated it completely to the respective ministers. Perhaps Draghi really wants to shut AZ down, but that will look bad- this week's plan makes AZ a more attractive takeover target, but with 50% staff (now let's watch the unions protest).
That's probably true. AZ and the most recent Italian government efforts to save it have broken every EU rule around bankruptcy and state funding of distressed companies. One of the biggest issues with the most recent (pre-Draghi) reorganization plan for Alitalia, or industrial plan as they call it, was the multi-year plan to continue paying salaries to AZ employees who would not be continuing on with the "new" company.
I suppose the EU's third largest economy, and a highly export-driven one, can't be without a national airline of some sort, but AZ remains as toxic as ever, with its future always in the hands of its capricious, greedy unions, Italy's never ending political carousel, and it seems the most recent blueprints for it do nothing to really make it a stronger player even amid the pandemic. FCO is not an ideal place to maintain a hub. It is a big destination for sure, but skews leisure, not so much business, and the configuration of the airport, a hodgepodge of terminals (some very nice) that make transit inefficient. AZ's Linate operation is the crown jewel and yet they can't fly long haul from there, given the physical constraints of the airport, and yet can't seem to make MXP work (I believe whatever remains of the MXP operation, however small, does not exist in the new plan), making it extraordinary that AZ will have no long haul service to even a handful of key business destinations from Italy's financial, creative, and commercial capital.
Yet, AZ will live on. It always does.