ROME (AFP) - Alitalia bosses and union and government officials forged a deal to save the troubled Italian flag carrier, but the company's restructuring plan immediately came under fire from rival airlines who complained of illegal state aid.
Government officials and both Alitalia sides emerged with an agreement in the early hours after thrashing out the fine details of redundancy payments for 3,700 workers who will lose their jobs in a restructuring plan.
Alitalia chairman and chief executive Giancarlo Cimoli said it guaranteed the company's future.
"We have laid the cornerstone, now we have to construct the building," said Cimoli, adding that the cost to the state of the five-year package would be around 300 million euros.
"I think that we obtained what we wanted, the continuation of the company," he said.
According to UIL union leader Luigi Angeletti, the deal "saves the company from failure. It's a good deal, the sense of responsability prevailed".
The agreement opens the way for the release of a 400-million-euro (490-million-dollar) state-guaranteed bridging loan for Alitalia, ensuring the company has sufficient cash until the launch of a capital increase expected early next year.
The company later announced it was postponing the release of its half-yearly figures, which had been due late Wednesday, to October 13. It said in a statement that it wanted to integrate the restructuring funds into its figures following the agreement.
But the agreement has angered the airline's low-cost competitors across Europe. They complained in a letter to the European Commission that the restructuring plan constitutes illegal state aid.
Alitalia and the unions representing its personnel had already reached agreements on new work contracts and a restructuring plan under which the company is to be split into two units -- ground service and flying operations.
But the final hurdle to agreement, settling the issue of compensation for those who will lose their jobs under the controversial plan, was finally overcome only after the all-night talks.
Shares in the carrier were sharply up in early trading Wednesday, the company showing a gain of 4.77 percent to 0.2965 euro.
In order to secure the deal, Social Affairs Minister Roberto Maroni proposed that those put out of work in the process should receive unemployment benefits for two years and then redundancy payments for three years, union sources said.
Any top-up payments will be up to the companies and workers involved, the minister said.
Maroni said however that Alitalia's real test lay in its ability to win back customers.
The deal was "a point of departure, not an arrival. I don't know if Alitalia has been saved, I hope so. This deal makes it possible to put the restructuring plan in place but then the company will have to face the market," he told Radio 24.
The government holds a 62.39 percent stake in the company, which is 1.6 billion euros in debt.
Meanwhile, a group of low-cost European airlines have written to the European Commission arguing that Alitalia's restructuring amounts to illegal state aid, the Financial Times reported.
Ryanair, Air Berlin and Wizz Air complained that any shift of liabilities between the company's ground service unit and its flying operations would be tantamount to state aid, the paper said.
In the letter to Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio and Competition Commissioner Mario Monti, they warned that "any form of state aid to Alitalia will be subject to an official challenge."