Aeroflot maintains that its network strategy and fleet optimisation plans, will win the bid for Alitalia as the 2 July deadline for initial proposals approaches.
It appears that two major bids ” Aeroflot and Air One ” are on the table ” with the Russians looking to acquire an essentially controlling stake of 39.9% in tandem with bankers, UniCredit.
The Russian flag carrier faces emotional competition from Italian operator, Air One, the country”s first private airline, but believes its operation of a global network makes more sense to develop Alitalia.
Not at any price however. Although declining to reveal exactly what Aeroflot was offering, deputy director general public affairs, Lev Koshlyakov, speaking to ABTN from Moscow, maintained that it would not buy at inflated cost.
”We think the [Italian] Ministry of Finance is giving us very tough payment conditions, but we can”t reveal any details according to the agreement we signed,” he said. ”Certainly we are not prepared to finance the Ministry.”
Koshlyakov was at some pains to insist however, that it was the potential for development and synergy with Alitalia ” already a codeshare partner within SkyTeam ” that would be the drive behind any deal. ”We have not just put down money but a development project based on synergy of our network,” he said.
Pressed as to why such synergy applied to Aeroflot and Alitalia, Koshlyakov insisted that increasing interest in Russia and the CIS, as well as those countries” increasing financial clout, was making such a fit desirable.
And although he noted that both carriers” networks ”never crossed,” there were opportunities working with Alitalia to exploit regions such as North Africa, southern Europe and Spain. Despite the looming presence of Open Skies next year, Koshlyakov maintained that Aeroflot didn”t necessarily see that as an opportunity, rather it wanted to feed traditional markets from its core constituency of Russia, the CIS and Asia.
Clearly, a large hurdle to overcome before anything concrete is in place, will be how to address complex union issues that have bedevilled the Italian carrier. ”We will talk to the unions in June and we have to understand if they will accept the restructuring plan,” said Koshlyakov. ”One of the major risks of this project is the economic problems.”
”Our strategy is not so much cutting as developing new opportunities ” it”s difficult to say what we have to cut or not but we are not going to restructure Alitalia as a low cost or regional airline.”
Aeroflot has also identified the Italian carrier”s aircraft mix as a major cause for review ” the 179-strong fleet comprises a large range including Boeing 777-200ERs, MD-80s, Airbus, Embraer and ATR machines. ”The fleet strategy would be efficiency ” we have to use more efficient aircraft,” said Koshlyakov. ”We can”t reveal what we will look at, but we will look at all possibilities.”
The potential sale has provoked intense debate in Italy, where Alitalia has traditionally enjoyed a dominant position as the flag carrier. ”We understand there are strong feelings [in Italy] about the identity of the national carrier but it is a global world,” said Koshlyakov.
”We hope the Italian government bases its judgement not on sentimentality, but on economics.”
Air One declined to return calls.