Ryanair Holdings plans to bid for Alitalia, which has filed for bankruptcy, and will keep the Italian company intact if it’s successful, according to CEO Michael O’Leary. The airline is prepared to take over Alitalia’s long-haul arm as well as a short-haul unit that parallels its own operations, O’Leary said Thursday. Most of the Rome-based company’s fleet would be retained, together with pilots and engineering staff, and its name would also survive. “Alitalia struggles to make money but it’s still a very good brand in Italy,” the CEO said. “The jets are all leased, so we would want those leases, but we would want the bankruptcy administrator to restructure them.” Cuts would be focused on a 2,000-strong management layer that O’Leary said is inappropriate for a carrier with 23m annual passengers. Ryanair, which attracted 117m customers in 2016, has 120 equivalent managers, he said. While O’Leary made clear Dublin-based Ryanair’s interest in Alitalia, the Irishman said the combined market share of the two airlines in Italy might pose an obstacle to a full takeover, which could be blocked by antitrust regulators. In that event it’s likely that Alitalia will be “broken up,” though Ryanair should still “get something out of it,” he said. Ryanair plans to submit a binding bid next month before a deadline for offers in October. A deal would give the company a mixed short-haul fleet, with Alitalia’s 70-odd Airbus SA A320-series planes joining more than 400 Boeing Co. 737s at the Irish company.<br/>