Directors of Alitalia are meeting today (December 13) to decide which of the two non-binding offers they should choose for the chronically loss-making national carrier.
The firectors' meeting is likely to be have preceded by talks with the Italian government which wants to shed its 49.9% stake in the long troubled airline.
The two offers came from Air France KLM and AP Holding, parent company of Air One, an Italian low cost carrier run by Carlo Toto.
Lufthansa, which has just integrated SWISS and was considering a bid, finally opted out.
The Alitalia board of directors also rejected a non-binding bid from a Professor Baldassarre saying his consortium had not provided the required information.
In its offer, AF KLM said it wanted to share with Alitalia "the benefits of profitable growth it has successfully implemented over the last four years."
AF KLM also said it would develop a business plan for Alitalia "in line with the founding principles of the Survival and Transition Plan prepared by Chairman Maurizio Prato and his management team."
This involves focusing Alitalia's operation on Rome and scaling down in Milan – a move opposed by the trades unions.
Air France KLM said it would help Alitalia reclaim the Italian market, make Rome's Fiumicino Airport a major hub like CDG and Schiphol and keep an operation at Milan Malpensa.
Mr Prato was quoted in the weekend edition of Corriere della Sera as saying that the AF KLM plan was based on Alitalia's rescue plan.
But he said Alitalia still needed to understand how the plan of rival bidders Air One would work.
A spokesman for Alitalia said the directors meeting today (December 13) would examine both proposals and decide with whom they wish to negotiate.
* see BTE Analysis
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