Officials in northern Italy are uniting in opposition to Air France-KLM's bid for ailing Alitalia SpA, which would make Rome the nation's only hub at the expense of Milan.
The Air France plan -- which the Alitalia board tipped on Friday as its preferred bidder over Italian airline Air One SpA -- would do away with Alitalia's two-hub system, one at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport and the other at Milan's Malpensa.
Having a hub in Milan has been fiercely defended by northern politicians, but has been criticized as too expensive and impractical. Alitalia's board, under chairman Maurizio Prato, has already signaled its intention to cut traffic to Malpensa.
The Northern League -- a party with a strong regional identity -- has warned of strikes and blockades in opposition to the Air France bid.
David Boni, a northern League official, said the Air France-KLM plan would "put out of the game the only hub that could compete on an international level," while costing the north jobs, the news agency ANSA reported on Sunday.
Lombardy regional president Roberto Formigoni called the board's decision "unacceptable," but said that the ultimate choice of a preferred bidder for the government's 49.9 percent stake will be made by Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi's government next month.
He urged Rome not to "hide behind the board's decision," saying it "risks playing with fire ... if it abandons the most important territory in the country."
Guglielmo Epifani, leader of the CGIL labor confederation, came out on Sunday against the Alitalia board's choice, citing the failure to guarantee Malpensa's future or to lay out plans for Alitalia's domestic routes.
"These are the problems that require a national operator to confront," Epifani said, according to ANSA. "That isn't simply a matter of the nationality of the company, but rather to have a response to these concerns."
Under Air France's plan, Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport would be integrated into the Air France-KLM hub network as the primary airport for travelers to and from Italy, and would serve as a gateway to southern and eastern Europe and northern Africa, the Alitalia board statement on Friday said.
"The new group, thanks to the presence of a hub in southern Europe, will improve its position with respect to its European competitors," the statement said.
Air France "foresees an important role" for Milan's two airports, with Linate, located in Milan, focused on business travelers while Malpensa would retain its three principal intercontinental connections to North America, South America and Asia, the statement said.
Rome's Leonardo da Vinci had 30.1 million passengers last year, while Malpensa had 21.8 million, according to the Airports Council International. Air France-KLM's other hubs, Paris' Charles De Gaulle and Amsterdam's Schipol, had 56.8 million and 46 million respectively.
The government has been trying to offload the loss-making Alitalia since last December.
RESILIENCE: Deepening bilateral cooperation would extend the peace sustained over the 45 years since the Taiwan Relations Act, Greene said Taiwan-US relations are built on deep economic ties and shared values, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene said yesterday, adding that strengthening supply chain security in critical industries, enhancing societal resilience through cooperation and deepening partnerships are key to ensuring peace and stability for Taiwan in the years ahead. Greene made the remarks at the National Security Youth Forum, organized by National Taiwan University’s National Security and Strategy Studies Institution in Taipei. In his address in Mandarin Chinese, Greene said the Taiwan-US relationship is built on deep economic ties and shared interests, and grows stronger through the enduring friendship between
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,