Alitalia boss resigns after net loss in 2012

Italian airline Alitalia’s chief executive Andrea Ragnetti resigned on Monday after the troubled group announced a net loss of 280 million euros ($369 million) last year.

The company had registered a loss of 69 million euros in 2011, it said in a statement.

Alitalia also reported an operational loss of 119 million euros compared to a loss of 6.0 million euros in 2011.

Alitalia is once more on the verge of bankruptcy.

It has two options: either being re-nationalised or ceded in a cut-rate deal to Air France-KLM, which in 2008 had offered 2.5 billion euros ($3.26 billion) for the troubled airline.

The takeover bid was blocked by then prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The Italian state absorbed most of Alitalia’s debt while the profit-making part of the business was sold off to a consortium of Italian businessmen.

The company was also merged with Italy’s second airline, Air One.