Alitalia SpA was still flying on Friday but the Italian flag carrier faced liquidation in a matter of days after a rescue plan collapsed.
The airline cancelled 20 flights at Rome's Fiumicino airport but blamed that on normal operational reasons rather than a lack of cash to buy fuel — something which could lead aviation authorities to ground its planes.
Suffering from the high fuel prices and an economic downturn that have hit the sector globally, Alitalia has been on the brink of collapse for years as political interference and labour unrest have bled it of cash and caused it to pile up debt.
A group of Italian investors withdrew their offer to buy profitable parts of the airline on Thursday after unions refused to accept the job losses and salary cuts it proposed.
The government said the only hope was if the consortium, CAI, put its offer back on the table and unions accepted the terms.
"There is no alternative to CAI. We need to return to the negotiating table because there is no-one else in the race," Labor Minister Maurizio Sacconi told Italian radio.
He ruled out any further intervention from the state which provided a 300 million euro ($435.2 million) loan earlier this year to keep the airline, which loses more than 2 million euros a day, flying. The European Commission is investigating that loan to see whether it constituted illegal state aid.
Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti told a cabinet meeting renationalising Alitalia — an idea mooted in the press — was not an option, a government source told Reuters. The state owns a 49.9 percent stake in Alitalia; its floated shares have been suspended from trading since June.
GROUNDED?
Alitalia has been operating under bankruptcy protection since the end of August and its special administrator is due to meet Italy's civil aviation authority ENAC on Monday to see whether it can retain its operating licence.
"If there is nothing concrete on the table, within a week or at most 10 days, the aircraft will no longer be allowed to take off," ENAC chairman told financial daily MF.
Alitalia's special administrator, Augusto Fantozzi, is seeking offers for the whole airline or its assets but has been turned down by the three major carriers he contacted.
"I have personally contacted the chairmen of Air France, Lufthansa and British Airways and they declined the invitation to make an offer, although they did express interest in the Italian market and the CAI initiative," Fantozzi wrote in an open letter to newspaper Corriere della Sera.
Transport Minister Altero Matteoli told one newspaper it was unrealistic to expect CAI to revive its offer unless the unions that had opposed it reversed their stance.
"If the unions were to call (CAI Chairman Roberto) Colaninno revising their position, maybe it would be possible to reopen talks, but I say that very hypothetically," he told La Stampa.
Alitalia's collapse would be a major blow to Berlusconi who, as leader of the opposition, said he would veto a plan to sell it to Air France-KLM, a deal which was also opposed by unions.
Air France-KLM withdrew its offer in April, shortly before Berlusconi won a landslide election victory.
Italian media have speculated other Italian companies might be persuaded to step in with a last-ditch rescue offer.
Mediobanca bank, touted as a white knight, would not comment. "As the situation is so problematic and delicate for several reasons, silence is golden," said CEO Alberto Nagel.
