Air France Offers Alitalia $1B Boost

Air France-KLM Group sweetened its bid for troubled Italian airline Alitalia today with a plan to raise $1.08 billion to upgrade aircraft and relaunch the brand, and a vow not to cut jobs. Air France is competing with Italy's No. 2 air carrier, Air One, to buy out the Italian government's 49.9% stake in the airline, which has posted losses 9 years running.  Air One’s plan offered a larger investment but would cut 2,000 jobs.

An analyst called Air France-KLM’s offer more realistic, saying “Air France is more experienced with turnaround situations after its own turnaround in the 1990s, and with mergers following its purchase of KLM in 2004.” Alitalia’s chairman and a major pilot union support the bid, but some politicians and business leaders want the company to remain in Italian hands, reports Bloomberg. (More Alitalia stories.)