Italy favours an industrial buyer for its stake in Alitalia over financial investors, Italian Transport Minister Alessandro Bianchi says in an interview with La Tribune Monday. A EUR200 million penalty that Alitalia could be forced to pay if it breaks a pact with Air France-KLM (3112.FR) “is not an amount that would make us give up on the operation,” Bianchi says.

The transformation of Alitalia into a regional airline, which is what Bianchi says would happen if the airline was to come under the control of Air France-KLM, “is not the logic of the process we’re launching.”
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