• Alfredo Altavillafought with the board over competing bids for the struggling airline.
• He was accused of blocking a proposal from US investment fund Certares, Delta Airlines, and Air France-KLM.
• The new government of far-right Giorgia Meloni announced last month that the exclusivity period for the negotiations was scheduled to expire.

A government source told AFP that the CEO of Italy’s state-owned ITA Airways quit on Monday night, hours before a shareholder meeting that was scheduled to endorse his removal amid a dispute over efforts to sell the carrier.

Alfredo Altavilla, the company’s chairman, fought with the board over competing bids for the struggling airline.

He was accused of blocking a proposal from US investment fund Certares, Delta Airlines, and Air France-KLM in favor of a proposal from Lufthansa and MSC.

The cabinet of former prime minister Mario Draghi stated at the end of August that it had accepted Certares’ bid. However, the new government of far-right Giorgia Meloni announced last month that the exclusivity period for the negotiations was scheduled to expire, potentially allowing the bidding process to resume.

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To allow Italy’s new government “to implement its decisions as quickly and efficiently as possible, without being in any way an obstacle or a hindrance, I have taken the decision to resign as president of the company,” Altavilla wrote in a letter to the economy minister.

According to Italian media, the Certares consortium proposed purchasing approximately 56 percent of ITA for approximately 600 million euros.

The Italian government would keep a 44 percent interest and two of the proposed ITA board’s five seats.

Lufthansa and the Swiss-Italian shipping company MSC had proposed 850 million euros for 80 percent of ITA, the airline that succeeded the loss-making national carrier Alitalia.

Lufthansa stated at the beginning of November that it was “still interested” in acquiring ITA, so long as the airline was “really privatized.”

On Tuesday, the shareholders of the company will convene for a general meeting.

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