The commissioners currently running Alitalia are hoping they can achieve a “full sale” of the Italian airline.
Reports suggest that up to 10 parties have submitted non-binding bids to buy all or parts of Alitalia – so far only Ryanair has publicly admitted it is one of the bidders.
Willie Walsh, chief executive of British Airways’ parent company IAG, said that his company was not one of these bidders for Alitalia.
Luigi Gubitosi, one of the three commissioners overseeing the sale of Alitalia, told La Repubblica newspaper that “saving Alitalia is possible”.
“We want to set up the restructuring of the company in order to sell it in the best way possible and in the shortest possible time,” he said. “We do not have much time, only a few months to restructure Alitalia to sell it as quickly as possible”.
Alitalia went into administration in May but its flights have been able to continue as normal thanks to temporary funding from the Italian government.
“We will publish the tender process on Monday (July 31) with a call for binding offers,” added Gubitosi.
“This phase will end on October 2. That’s when we will be able to better understand the market orientations. What we would prefer is without any doubt the full sale.”