In the forced execution procedure of a judgment pronounced by Judecătoria Sectorului 1 București, pursuant to Regulation no. 261/2004, we have recently learned that Alitalia – Società Aerea Italiana S.P.A. is in insolvency.

Thus, the ministerial decree of the 2^nd of May 2017 ordered the opening of the special administration procedure and the appointment of a commission of special administrators for Alitalia as a result of the finding that this airline has entered insolvency. According to the report of the Italian Minister for Economic Development as the basis of the aforementioned decree, Alitalia had, on the 28^th of February 2017, current liabilities of 2.3 billion euros and current assets of 921 million euros. The request to open the insolvency proceedings was filed by the Alitalia airline on the 2^nd of May 2017.

Since the opening of the insolvency proceedings, Alitalia has been financed by a loan granted by the Italian Government. The company’s attempts to sell appear to have failed so far, as the air transport market has recorded several events such as the Air Berlin bankruptcy in Germany, the Monarch Air bankruptcy in the UK, and Ryanair’s operational difficulties in Ireland. Low-cost operators easyJet and Wizz Air, Lufthansa, the Air France group – KLM and Delta Airlines were amongst those interested in the acquisition of Alitalia. In August 2018, however, Alitalia rejected all of the takeover bids, which they considered as “inappropriate”.

The opening of the insolvency proceedings also affected the Romanian branch of Alitalia (the official name is now Alitalia – Società Aerea Italiana S.P.A. in Amministrazione Straordinaria Roma Bucharest Branch), which entered the same insolvency proceedings and is subject to the Italian rules of insolvency. Due to the lack of its own assets, the branch will no longer be able to honour its current payment liabilities and will not be able to enforce the judgments that concern it (for example, those granting compensation to passengers of cancelled or delayed flights by Alitalia).

The lawyers’ civil partnership Costaş, Negru & Asociaţii has obtained the ordering for Alitalia airline, under civil order no. 8962/12.07.2017 of the Judecătoria Sectorului 1 București, to compensate for the delay assimilated to a cancellation of the Bucharest – Rome flight and the loss of the passenger’s luggage on the Rome – Naples correspondent flight.

Details about the legal services and lawyers of Costaş, Negru & Asociaţii can be found on our webpage at https://www.costas-negru.ro.