Alitalia bleeds around E300m euros a year: administrator

Alitalia is burning through its cash resources at the pace of around E300m a year, its new temporary administrator Giuseppe Leogrande told members of a parliamentary committee. In November, after months of talks, railway group Ferrovie dello Stato, US carrier Delta and infrastructure group Atlantia backtracked on a plan to rescue the carrier. That left the government to choose between liquidating the company, or injecting more taxpayers’ money to keep it flying. Alitalia is due to receive a further E400m from the government, in addition to the E900m the state has injected since May 2017. Leogrande said on Tuesday he was still working on an industrial plan for the loss-making airline. That triggered a harsh reaction from some members of the parliament’s transport committee, who noted that he needed to find a group of rescuers for the carrier by the end of May. The new manager said he would re-start talks with Delta and was also prepared to talk with Lufthansa.<br/>