Alitalia, a nearly bankrupt Italian airline company, received a lifeline last Friday. This was after the company's board members had approved a capital increase as a part of the EUR500 million government led bailout. The approval was given by the company's board members along with cautious shareholder Air France-KLM, reported Reuters.
The positive vote which investors and the company's board had cast meant Alitalia's planes could keep operating beyond the weekend. This was something that had been looked in doubt after major creditor Eni had been threatening to cut its fuel supplies unless the airline could show that it had solid financial capacity to pay.
According to the estimates by some analysts, Alitalia had turned a profit in 2002. The airline was estimated to spend around EUR10 million a day which could mean that a new cash injection would not last long. The Italian government had finalized the plan to fund the struggling airline late on Thursday after it failed to persuade some of the country's national companies to help.
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