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AIRLINE

2,200 jobs to go in ‘painful’ Alitalia shake-up

Struggling Italian airline Alitalia will have to shed 2,200 jobs as part of its planned tie-up with Etihad Airways, which has promised to invest €560 million, the head of the Italian airline said on Monday.

2,200 jobs to go in 'painful' Alitalia shake-up
Gabriele del Torchio, Alitalia's chief executive, said the airline would go through a "complex, tiring and painful" restructuring. Alitalia photo: Shutterstock

Negotiations have been running for months for the Emirati airline to take a 49 percent stake in Alitalia, which currently employs 12,800 people and is facing bankruptcy.

The Italian airline will have to go through a restructuring that is "complex, tiring and painful – there is no alternative," said Gabriele del Torchio, Alitalia's chief executive, on the sidelines of a conference in Rome.

It had previously said as many as 2,500 jobs were on the line.

The airline's management hopes to finalize a deal on the company's debt by Friday. Del Torchio said talks with banking creditors were "very advanced", and that they were demanding "a sacrifice".

"I think it will take only a few weeks to conclude the deals with Etihad," he said, adding that a successful deal would send "an important signal" about Italy to foreign investors.

AirFrance-KLM also owns a stake in Alitalia, but chose not to pursue taking over the Italian airline after it could not get similar guarantees on deep restructuring to make it profitable.

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AIRLINE

Airline Norwegian posts 15 billion kroner loss after nightmare 2020

Low cost airline Norwegian has registered a loss of 14.9 billion Norwegian kroner for 2020, a year in which the company saw a drastic reduction in passenger numbers and was on the brink of bankruptcy.

A file photo of a Norwegian Air Shuttle plane in Finland.
A file photo of a Norwegian Air Shuttle plane in Finland. Heikki Saukkomaa / Lehtikuva / AFP

Low cost airline Norwegian has registered a loss of 14.9 billion Norwegian kroner for 2020, a year in which the company saw a drastic reduction in passenger numbers and was on the brink of bankruptcy.

The company published its annual results on Friday, revealing the huge operating loss.

Norwegian’s 2019 result, a loss of around 1.7 billion kroner, had put the company in a difficult position even prior to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The coronavirus outbreak and its consequent travel restrictions reduced the company’s passenger numbers to 6.9 million in 2020. That is 29 million fewer than in 2019.

Not all of the loss is due to fewer passengers. Around half of the company’s devaluation is attributed to a depreciation of the value of its aircraft fleet, news wire Ritzau reports.

“2020 was an exceptionally demanding year for air travel and for Norwegian,” CEO Jacob Schram said in a statement on the annual results.

“In light of that, the result for the fourth quarter (of 2020) is not surprising. Unfortunately, the majority of our employees are furloughed and many have lost their jobs – in part because of the closure of long distance services,” he added.

The company was already in debt prior to the pandemic and is now under bankruptcy protection in Ireland and is undergoing similar process in Norway.

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