Alitalia sold to CAI

A CONSORTIUM of 21 investors has bought Alitalia, the struggling Italian carrier. The consortium, called CAI, bought the company for €427 million in cash and it is taking on €625 million of Alitalia’s debts.

The consortium has also just bought Alitalia’s smaller domestic rival Air One and the two will now be merged and relaunched on January 12, 2009.

However, CAI did not want Alitalia’s cargo unit and so the government, which owned a large part of the entire company, will sell it off. No one could be reached at Alitalia who could confirm whether it was only the unit’s assets, which would be sold off piecemeal, or if a buyer would be sought for the entire functioning unit.

The new airline will have 148 planes flying to 70 destinations.

Share this story