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Part of the report

www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSL235928720081102
Alitalia buyers confident of relaunch by December
Sun Nov 2, 2008 8:35am EST

MILAN, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Investors bidding for Italian airline Alitalia (AZPIa.MI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) are confident they can relaunch it by December 1 even though its pilots and flight attendants still reject the deal.

The group, Compagnia Aerea Italiana (CAI), filed a binding offer on Friday after a week of hard bargaining with the airline's myriad unions.

Although it did not win over the pilots and flight attendants, it did secure the support of four unions which carry most of the clout.

CAI Chief Executive Rocco Sabelli said he hoped those who were still holding out would eventually change their minds.

"I am convinced that in the end we will embark on this adventure of relaunching Alitalia with them," he told the La Repubblica newspaper on Sunday. "By the first of December we can take off."

CAI's offer ended months of national angst over the future of Alitalia, which risked being grounded in coming weeks for lack of funds.

Its pilots and flight attendants had accepted the idea of the takeover, but they rejected the final offer because of the terms and conditions of new labour contracts.

One of their union leaders scoffed at the idea that the new Alitalia could fly without them. "They will put planes in flight with the baggage handlers? I wish them luck," Massimo Notaro of Unione Piloti told the Corriere della Sera newspaper on Saturday.

Regardless of the position of the five recalcitrant unions, CAI Chairman Roberto Colaninno said his group would call each of their members to offer them a job at the new airline.

"We will hire flight personnel using a roll call," he said in an interview published in Sunday's Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper. "We will not surrender ourselves to ... blackmail."

Neither Sabelli nor Colaninno would divulge their offer price for the best assets of Alitalia, but they plan to raise 1.1 billion euros to pay for the purchase and relaunch. Il Sole 24 Ore said CAI was offering around 350 million euros.

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