Lufthansa's Alitalia bid the 'most promising': Minister

Lufthansa emerged as the number one candidate to take over Alitalia Monday after an Italian government minister called the German airline's bid the "most promising". The Italian government has been looking for new investors in its struggling flagship airline since it entered insolvency proceedings last year, hit by competition from low-cost operators. The situation is further complicated by March's inconclusive general election, from which no new government has yet been found. "Alitalia is still fragile and needs a partner. There's a chance to work on these offers and arrive at a structural solution that doesn't cost taxpayers anything more," Economic Development Minister Carlo Calenda told the La Repubblica daily. "Objectively speaking, however, Lufthansa's offer is the most promising." The deadline for sale of Alitalia was originally the end of this month, but the government will issue a decree in the coming weeks pushing back that deadline by around six months while Mattarella searches for a solution to the stalemate. Last week a Lufthansa spokesman said that they had "submitted a document describing ideas for a restructured 'NewAlitalia'", while stating that Alitalia as it is today "is not interesting". The spokesman said that if the document was well received enough "we can imagine further discussions".<br/>