Friday's French music break - Jennifer Lopez ft Pitbull, "On the floor" (Air France flash mob)

Friday's French music break this week is just a little different.

As you can see from the title it's a recent single from one of the world's biggest stars, US singer Jennifer Lopez with a little help from rapper Pitbull (Armando Christian Pérez).

Not much French about that, you could be thinking.

Well that might be the case, except that Air France employees decided to use it as the music for a recent flash mob at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.

Not the greatest dancers, but who cares (screenshot Air France flash mob)

 It might not be a good time for either the company with over 5,000 jobs on the line, or its passengers in a few weeks time when staff are threatening to take industrial action (hooray - that'll make a change) to protest the cuts.

But let's not get too serious about that four-letter word that is the "news" for a moment and have a bit of fun courtesy of Air France cabin crew and ground staff.

Flash mobs of course have been around for several years, and perhaps the most famous is the one performed on Oprah Winfrey by the Black Eyed Peas and 21,000 of her fans in Chicago back in 2009.

You haven't seen it? Take a look.

The Air France flash mob might seem a bit pale (to put it politely) in terms of performance and certainly numbers, but the element of surprise for passengers waiting in Roissy's somewhat soulless modern monstrosity that is Terminal E, was clearly still present.

It all begins, just as flash mobs always do, innocently enough, this time with an announcement coming over the public address system paging Lopez.

There's little reaction when it's made in French, but when repeated in English, you can see that some passengers really think J. Lo is "in the house" - so to speak.

And then the music kicks in, the "performers" take their places and "strike their poses".

All right, so it's not the best choreographed routine perhaps (no, definitely) - and some of the participants look as though they've put in less than five minutes training.

But who gives a stuff?

The waiting passengers appreciated it and heck, it's not a bad way to spend your time before you take your flight, is it? at the airport.

In fact if those threatened strikes occur, it could be the only means of whiling away the time.

So enjoy, and here's hoping it brings a smile to your face ahead of the weekend.

And as always, have a good one.

Gérard Depardieu pees aboard a 'plane - in public

What class!

The headline could have been more vulgar, in keeping with the reported behaviour of one of France's best-known actors Gérard Depardieu, aboard a Paris to Dublin 'plane on Tuesday evening.

Gérard Depardieu (screenshot BFM TV report)

But why stoop to the level of the 62-year-old?

Depardieu apparently took a leak in front of fellow passengers after the cabin crew refused to allow him to use the loo just as the 'plane was ready to taxi for take off on Tuesday evening.

"'I need to piss. I need to piss,' is what Monsieur Depardieu said," according to one of the passengers aboard the flight operated by CityJet, a subsidiary of Air France-KLM.

"A member of the cabin crew informed Monsieur Depardieu that the 'plane was ready for take off, everyone had to remain seated and the toilets were locked but could be used in about 15 minutes," he told Europe 1 radio.

"The actor said he couldn't wait, so what did he do? He peed right there in front of everyone."

A spokeswoman for CityJet confirmed that an incident had taken place requiring the 'plane to return to the gate to be cleaned and causing a two-hour delay in take-off.

But the airline refused to release the name of the person involved saying simply that he had been escorted off the 'plane.

As the French celebrity news website Purepeople.com points out Depardieu is not unknown for saying exactly what he thinks or doing what he wants and has a reputation for what could politely be termed as, "his lack of social graces".

In April 2010 at the premiere of "Mammuth" in Paris he insulted a journalist who asked him why he had dedicated the film to his late son Guillaume, calling her, "A bitch."

And in August last year he was at it again, this time taking aim at French actress Juliette Binoche and questioning why she had been so successful in spite of being, "A nothing."

EasyJet treats Paris-Toulouse passengers to a 10-hour journey

Another tale of travel woes in France and one in which you pays your money and you takes your chances perhaps.

This time around though it's not the weather that's solely to blame and it doesn't involve Air France-KLM or the state-owned railway SNCF.

Instead it's the British-based lowcost airline easyJet and the 10 hours it took for passengers aboard one of its flights to make a trip that normally takes a maximum of one hour and 30 minutes.


It happened last Sunday as the 141 aboard the 'plane made the journey from the French capital to the southwestern city of Toulouse.

A two-hour delay in taking off because of maintenance problems certainly didn't put passengers in the best of moods, but worse was to come.

As the 'plane approached its destination the captain refused to land because apparently conditions were too windy and instead redirected 240 kilometres away to Montpellier, where passengers then boarded buses to complete their journey.

"Weather conditions" coupled with "technical problems that didn't affect flight safety", according to the airline were the reason for the diversion, but passengers aboard the flight weren't so sure they were being told the whole story.

"When we arrived at Montpellier I overheard one of the ground staff talking via two-way radio with a colleague saying that the 'plane wouldn't be taking off again," Luc Mousseaux, a passenger aboard the flight told BFM TV

"That makes me wonder if the weather really was the reason for not being able to land," he added.



That's a view backed up by an aviation expert who, according to the national daily Le Figaro, said the wind had not been particularly strong around the city on the afternoon in question but admitted that the decision about whether to land was entirely at the captain's discretion.

As is company policy, easyJet did offer any compensation apart from refreshment vouchers and passengers are not entitled to any reimbursement because, as far as the airline is concerned, it met its obligation of ensuring passengers arrived at their destination.

Toulouse or 'La Ville Rose" as it is nicknamed is one of France's largest cities. It's home to one of Europe's top rugby teams, and of course is the base of Airbus.

It's also a major destination for holidaymakers in summer as it's very much the gateway to the whole of the southwestern region of the country.

The Paris-Toulouse route is a busy one, and the city is one of the destinations for the Navette or shuttle service operated by Air France from both Orly and Roissy-Charles de Gaulle.

In total the company operates 30 scheduled flights from both Paris airports combined each day and during peak hours there's a 'plane leaving every 30 minutes.

Not surprisingly perhaps easyJet has also grabbed a piece of the action with five Toulouse-bound flights leaving Paris every day.

Remembering the victims of Air France flight 447

A memorial service will be held in Paris on Tuesday for families of those who died in the Air France flight 447 crash last year.

It'll take place at the Parc Floral in the French capital and will be followed by the inauguration of a monument at the Père Lachaise cemetery

The commemorations will be private and reserved for the families of the 216 passengers and 12 crew members who died exactly a year ago when the Rio de Janeiro-Paris flight crashed into the Atlantic Ocean.

But on the first anniversary of what was the worst accident in the airline's history, those whose loved ones perished are frustrated that so little progress has been made in determining the cause of the accident.

As the weekly news magazine Le Point says, the families looking for explanations are "caught in game of ping pong between different hypotheses; from Air France for example whose objective is to show that there was a fault in the design or construction of the aircraft (an Airbus A330-200 ) to Airbus which has suggested that the pilots were poorly trained or the 'plane poorly maintained."

"The assumptions," says Le Point "outnumber the certainties."

For Alain Jakubowicz, one of the lawyers representing the families, there has been a general unwillingness on the part of the investigating authorities to want to shed light on what really happened.

"In two of the reports released by the Bureau d'enquêtes et d'analyses (BEA, the French government agency responsible for investigating aviation accidents) there's no analysis of the autopsies carried out on the bodies that have been recovered," he's quoted as saying in another weekly news magazine L'Express.

"Investigators also downplay the role of the 'planes (speed) sensors," he added.

"Is there really any evidence that there's a desire by the investigators to provide information about the drama?"

It's that apparent lack of transparency which is most frustrating for many of the families according to Françoise Fouquet who lost her daughter and son-in-law in the accident.

"Everybody wants to know the truth and nobody can afford the luxury of not knowing," she told reporters on the eve of Tuesday's commemorations.

"The memory remains a nightmare and I have the impression that the suffering (of those who lost loved ones) has increased since the accident."

Thief steals thousands of euros from sleeping passengers on Air France flight

Anyone knows that when you're in a busy place it's always sound advice to look after your personal possessions.

As in many a city worldwide, public transport operators in Paris make regular announcements warning passengers that pickpockets are about.

It's part and parcel of the "joys" of living and working in a large metropolitan area.

When it comes to flying though, the most travellers can normally expect is to be told to keep their own luggage in view at all times, and any left unattended will be "dealt with".

That's of course before you've checked in and made it on to the 'plane.

But once there, cocooned in your own little space, the chances are for the most part that your defences will be down and you'll feel more secure. Well apart from those who are terrified of flying, but that's quite another story.

And so it must have felt for passengers aboard the overnight Air France Tokyo-Paris flight on Tuesday.

Except for five of them travelling in business class, there was something of a rude awakening.

Because while they slept, a thief was busy at work, relieving them of around €4,000 worth of cash in various currencies.

The alarm was only raised shortly before landing, when one of the victims alerted staff that money had been stolen from her purse.

In other words the thief had been going about his or her business right under the noses of dozing passengers and the cabin crew. And nobody had noticed a thing.

The captain informed airport authorities of what had happened ahead of landing and police were on hand to greet the passengers when the 'plane arrived.

But after half an hour, they decided to allow all the passengers to disembark and it was only the five who had been robbed who were detained to make formal complaints.

So what does Air France, the airline, which in its advertising campaign encourages customers to feel almost as though they're flying in pure comfort without a care in the world, have to say about the incident?

Christmas return home unlikely for French tourists in Brazil plane row

There seems to be little hope that three French citizens detained earlier this month by Brazilian authorities for causing a disturbance on a 'plane, will be home in time for Christmas.

On Monday their families had hoped to have a private audience with the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, but all they managed to do was to hand in a letter asking him to intervene on their behalf.

So what's the story all about and how come two retired French men, Michel Ilinskas aged 61 and Antonio Nascimento aged 64 ans, along with Emilie Camus, a 54-year-old hospital worker from the Parisian suburbs are still in Brazil and being held under house arrest?

Well, what happened to them perhaps needs to be seen in the light of the Air France flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris which crashed into the Atlantic in June killing all 216 passengers and 12 crew members and the fears that has understandably engendered to many taking to the skies.

The three were among a group of French tourists who had been on a two-week cruise and were due to return home from São Paulo on December 6 aboard a flight operated by the Brazilian airline TAM.

Their 'plane was reportedly held on the tarmac for three hours because of a malfunction in the aircraft's computer system.

Explanations from the flight crew as to the cause of the delay were apparently only offered in Portuguese and English, and although Camus, who speaks Portuguese, was able to translate, some passengers, among them the three who were later arrested, panicked and requested to be allowed to disembark and take another flight.

That request was refused and somehow "talk of rebellion" reached the cockpit and the police were called in to detain the "ringleaders" and escort them from the 'plane.

As can be seen from the accompanying amateur video, they weren't exactly treated with kid gloves.

Ilinskas and Nascimento were held on suspicion of being the main "rabble rousers" and Camus, was also arrested accused of having "incited violence" through her translations.

On Monday the families of the three and their supporters rallied outside the Elysée palace in Paris, the official residence of the French president, hoping they would be able to persuade him in person to intervene with Brazilian authorities on their behalf.

But all they managed was to hand in a letter, and they hold little hope of seeing their loved ones before the holiday season starts.

"The only hope I have is an intervention at the highest level," Muriel Ilinskas, the wife of one of those detained, told French news.

"It's a complete nightmare and I don't see an end to it."

Hijo, the dog who went missing during a Paris stopover

Lost luggage is one thing, but imagine how difficult it must be, in spite of all the regulations and procedures in place, for an airline to lose man's best friend and the sheer desperation owners must feel when they're told their dog has gone missing.

Sleeping at an airport might not be everyone's idea of time well spent, but a Lebanese-Spanish couple did just that last week as they waited for news on the disappearance of their dog.

Their enforced stopover began last Wednesday when they arrived on an Air France flight from Beirut in transit for the Chilean capital of Santiago.

That's when they discovered that their boxer dog "Hijo" (or "son" in Spanish) who had made the journey with them, albeit as “accompanied baggage” in the cargo hold, was missing.

According to the airline, there had been something wrong with a handle on the transportation kennel and Hijo had escaped from it after the 'plane landed.

But as far as his owner Alain Daou was concerned, the baggage handlers (and as a consequence the airline) had somehow been at fault.

"The cage was brand new," he said. "They must have dropped it."

Air France apparently offered the couple, who were without visas and for obvious reasons didn't want to leave for Chile until Hijo had been found, one night at a hotel.

But that was the extent of their responsibility, according to Daou, who had less than kind words about what had happened.

"The airline did nothing during those three days," he said. "As far as it was concerned our dog was simply a piece of luggage."

Although the story ended well, the couple surely deserves sympathy for having spent so long at an airport which a poll back in June revealed was far from being a joy for any traveller.

Published by the independent Canadian-based website sleepingairports.net. the poll ranked the airport as the world's worst, and the comments made by those who had voted for (or should that be against?) it, had more than a ring of the familiar about them to anyone who has had the displeasure of passing through the French capital's main airport.

According to statistics released in March by the airline watchdog, the Air Transport Users Council (AUC), losing luggage happens with frightening regularity.

"Airlines mishandled 42 million bags worldwide in 2007," said the AUC, "Compared with 34 million in 2006 and 30 million in 2005."

As if you needed telling, that's an awful lot of disgruntled passengers. But there was worse.

"Of the 42 million mishandled in 2007, 1.2 million bags, or around one bag for every 2,000 passengers, were irretrievably lost."

And the inconvenience of arriving at a destination while the luggage failed to make the same journey, hit this particular traveller hard earlier this year when he touched down in New York with just his carry-on after a flight from Paris.

Air France to launch auction for its inaugural A380 flights

If you're an aeroplane enthusiast living in France, November 20 is perhaps a date to mark in your diary.

That's the date for the inaugural flight of Air France's first Airbus A380, and the company is planning to sell seats on the 'plane, which will fly from Paris to New York, to the highest bidders.

A similar auction will be held for the flight connecting the City of Light with the Big Apple for the following day.

The proceeds from the ticket sales will go to three charities backed by the Fondation Air France (Air France Foundation) , which "supports projects that benefit children and young people who are ill, disabled or destitute in France or in other parts of the world where Air France is present."

You can't actually start bidding yet though. The auction won't take place until the beginning of October, but already those who are interested can pop along to the company's web site and register their email address.

While the flight will undoubtedly be a treat for those who would like to spoil themselves, just have to be among the first do anything and have the spare cash (and time) available to pay more than the going rate, the return trips will be on another 'plane.

The airline is trying hard to make the "offer" sound enticing, pointing out that successful bidders will be "The first to make the flight across the Atlantic in an A380 flying the Air France colours" and can "Take advantage of an 'exclusive programme' comprising shopping, private sales and a selection of galleries and museums."

But perhaps the best reason for bidding in the first place would be that it's all in a good cause.

There again, if you can wait just a couple of days or are planning to make a trip to New York later, you could find yourself booked on the superjumbo, as the first Air France commercial flight from Paris to New York is scheduled for November 23.

Those seats are apparently being snapped up with only around 130 places remaining.

"We started discreetly selling tickets for those flights last week and then earlier this week opened the sale officially," a representative for the airline told the national daily Libération.

"Half the 'plane is already full with travellers who didn't realise they would be booked on the A380, but thought that they would be taking the usual 'plane (used for the route) - a Boeing 777."

Air France has ordered a total of 12 superjumbos and by spring 2010 plans to have four of them in operation serving three other long-haul destinations alongside New York; Johannesburg, Dubai and Tokyo.

At the moment only three other companies fly the A380; Emirates, Qantas and Singapore Airlines.

The first commercial flight of the superjumbo was with Singapore Airlines in October 2007.

Air travel "getting back to normal" in Paris

After the previous day's chaos at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle, the French capital's major international airport, it's almost "service as usual" on Tuesday.

Snow and ice led Air France to cancel more than 150 flights on Monday leaving more than 3,000 passengers stranded overnight.

Many of them were forced to sleep in the airport terminals as nearby hotels were full.

You can tell it's winter here in France because it's cold - very cold. In fact "unusually cold" with daytime temperatures in the Paris region barely climbing above zero degrees centigrade at the moment.

Another sign that it's winter is that there's snow. Yes, shock horror, the two can sometimes go together even here in France.

And when the snow struck on Monday, the airport at Roissy seemed suitably unprepared.

Now that might come as something of a surprise to anyone who knows the country or has spent any time living here.

After all, the French seem almost as weather-obssessed as the British are reputed to be, and it wouldn't have taken a PhD perhaps for the airlines and the airport authorities to have anticipated what was likely to happen.

Don't believe me? Then flick on the television any evening at eight o'clock on either of the country's two main national channels and you'll be just in time to catch the weather forecast.

But that it seems isn't enough. Once the news is finished, up pops the presenter once again to repeat what he or she told viewers 35 minutes earlier.

Just to push the point a little further both TF1 - the privately owned channel - and France 2, public television - have just "upped the ante" by extending their forecasts from the following three days to five. So in theory we should all be fully informed knowing well ahead of time what's likely to happen.

Of course that also depends on the premise that viewers can have absolute faith in what they're being told.

Indeed on Sunday evening we were all informed that there was a danger of black ice on the roads as the country returned to work after the long holiday break, and there was also the likelihood of snow during the day on Monday.

Not just a light covering of the lovely fluffy, white stuff, but several centimetres falling across a huge chunk of northern France.

More than 20 of the country's 95 metropolitan departments were put on "weather alert" and sure enough the snow, freezing rain and ice arrived - as predicted.

But somehow, somewhere along the line, all that escaped The Powers That Be at Roissy, who failed to take into account what the rest of us knew was coming.

And as Monday's evening news showed, there were plenty of disgruntled passengers barely disguising their disgust at the confusion, lack of information and shortfall of emergency overnight accommodation provided.

Interestingly enough Orly airport, just south of the capital and therefore also subject to exactly the same weather conditions, reported very few cancellations and no accommodation problems for passengers.

There again it is smaller and serves mainly domestic routes, and perhaps its directors had tuned in to the weather forecast the evening before.

The cold snap or French equivalent perhaps of the "Big Chill' is expected to last for the best part of the week.

France - a "working" week in the life of a country

Hello or "bonjour" from France, the country of liberté, égalité, fraternité - oh yes and of course industrial action.

Within the space of barely a week, pilots, train drivers, teachers and postal workers will all have been protesting, and what might from the outside appear almost a national pastime is from the inside just a way of life.

If somehow you managed to make it to France by 'plane last weekend, in spite of the Air France-KLM strike over government plans to increase the retirement age for pilots from 60 to 65, the chances are that when you landed you would have heard the usual sort of announcement.

You know the kind of thing. Something along the lines of....

"Welcome Ladies and Gentleman, we have landed at Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.

"The local time is eight o'clock and the outside temperature is nine degrees celsius.

"Please remain seated until the aircraft has reached its final parking position.

"On behalf of captain Dupont and the rest of the crew, we would like to thank you for flying Air France-KLM, and hope to have you on board again soon."

Well that's more or less what you would have heard.

Of course what probably wouldn't have been mentioned, but perhaps should have been for anyone wondering what on earth is going on in France at the moment was that little "extra added value" resembling the following.

"As you know, our pilots have been on strike for the past four days, and if you thought that was the end of the story as far as industrial action in France is concerned, think again.

"On Thursday, primary school teachers throughout the country will be on strike over job cuts due next year, and as local authorities cannot guarantee the government's promised 'minimum service' many parents will have to take the day off work to look after their children.

"Next Saturday - November 22 - it'll be the turn of the post office, or La Poste as we call it here. Employees won't actually be on strike, they had one last month to protest privitisation plans in 2010.

"Instead this time they plan a massive march in the streets of Paris and most of the country's major cities. So in case you're hoping to do some autumn sightseeing of the capital's world famous monuments, or are taking a trip to Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Bordeaux or practically any other destination in France, you can expect some congestion.

"For those of you who were looking forward to the train drivers' strike on Wednesday, we're sorry to have to tell you that it has been postponed.....for the moment.

"Management and unions are still in negotiations over proposed changes in working conditions for freight train drivers.

"But don't worry, with a little bit of luck, those talks should break down and normal strike service will be resumed from Sunday.

"On behalf of captain Dupont and the crew, once again thank you for flying Air France-KLM, and we hope you enjoy your stay in France."

All right, so you'll probably never hear such an announcement, but what's striking about this week in particular in France is exactly that - striking.

Not of course that France is a country unaccustomed to industrial action, and there has been plenty of it, well documented over the years.

Just last autumn the country was brought to a virtual standstill when train drivers came out on strike over government plans to reform pensions, and there have been a series of one-day stoppages over the past 10 months.

Similarly in spring, teachers, students and parents regularly took to the streets to demonstrate against education reforms, and postal workers have also held a number of one day walkouts over the past year.

The French though seem to take it all in their stride.

They grumble about the impact it has on getting to work and everyday life, and then seem to just get on with it.

Perhaps though the most remarkable aspect of this latest round of disputes has been the deafening silence from politicians of all persuasions.

Even though unions reckon that around 70 per cent of primary school teachers will be on strike tomorrow, the education minister, Xavier Darcos, has dismissed the action as an almost "annual autumn ritual."

Meanwhile little has been heard from the opposition Socialist party, which of course is currently embroiled in a battle to choose a new leader.

So to all of you out there, who have made it to the end of this post, here's wishing you "bon travail" as some might say in France.

French travel delays expected as pilots strike and train drivers threaten walkout

As the French get back into their stride after last week's one day train drivers' strike disrupted travel throughout the country, they can now look forward to another few days of possible travelling chaos.

Yes - there's another strike scheduled for next Wednesday.

But even before the delights of yet again struggling into work, France will be treated to a weekend's worth of flight delays as Air France-KLM pilots go on strike.

Management has already warned passengers that they can expect significant disruption during the action which begins on Friday, with at least half of scheduled flights forecast to be cancelled tomorrow alone.

Interviewed on national radio on Thursday morning, the president of the Air France-KLM, Jean-Cyril Spinetta, warned that the strike could have serious consequences for the airline.

"The action is pointless," he said. " It comes at the worst possible moment and it'll have an effect on the confidence our customers have in the airline at both home and abroad," he added.

"And it'll cost the company millions of euros."

The protest is over government plans to increase the retirement age for pilots from 60 to 65 - part of a package of reforms due to be discussed in parliament shortly.

The claim by unions representing the pilots is that the amendments constitute a "violation of an earlier promise" by the transport minister, Dominique Bussereau, that the retirement age for pilots would be "a matter of negotiation."

Unions representing cabin crew have already given consent to government plans to increase their retirement age from 55 to 65, and have even requested that the change be introduced a year earlier than originally planned.

So no happy flying this weekend if you're planning a trip on an Air France-KLM 'plane, and the airline recommends taking a look at the website and it has also given two numbers to call for more information on flight cancellations.

Within France, dial 0800 240 260, and from abroad call 00 33 157 02 10 55

Meanwhile if you have somehow managed to make it here by the time the strike finishes on Monday, you're likely to be greeted by delays on the country's railways a couple of days later.

If it happens, it won't be widespread action, but could still cause headaches for many if, as threatened, train drivers from two unions begin action on Wednesday.

At the heart of the dispute is an attempt by SNCF (Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français - the French national railway company) to re-negotiate working conditions with some freight train drivers.

It follows a similar strike last week which caused delays to commuter trains, but largely spared international destinations.

But it will differ in being more than simply one day of action, with the unions threatening to continue into Thursday.

Happy travelling - or as they say here - bon voyage indeed.

Will Air France-KLM be tempted - again?

Don't hold your breath, but it seems as though the on-off-on-off again marriage between Air-France-KLM and the cash-strapped airline Alitalia could be on again.

The Italian government in Rome has put together a package that has had the seal of approval from the European Commission, and Air-France-KLM has given signs that it could once again be tempted to invest.

The principal actors in this ongoing saga that would surely be the pride of any US soap opera writer are of course Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, the country's troubled national carrier, Alitalia, the Franco-Dutch consortium Air-France-KLM, the European Commission, 16 new investors and lots, yes really LOTS of money.

Alitalia is a business investor's nightmare. And it has been for quite a while now. It has a debt of around €1.2 billion, loses more than €1 million a day and hasn’t notched up an annual profit since 1999. Its shares have been suspended since June and it has lost a cool €400 million just since the beginning of this year.

If those figures were not bad enough, it also has a fleet of notoriously ageing, gas-guzzling aircraft and a 20,000 plus workforce that seems to spend as much time on the ground striking as it does in the air flying.

Little wonder then that the government in Rome has been so keen to offload it and has been looking for a deal to save it for the best part of the last 18 months.

In fact there have been two previous attempts to sell it. Both of them involved Air France-KLM and both failed.

The most recent one was in April, when the Franco-Dutch group threw in the towel frustrated over unions' refusals to accept proposed job losses. It had also discovered that the unions were still apparently trying to seal a deal with an Italian buyer – not that there was any sign at the time of one able to cough up the necessary cash.

The solution now on the table is perhaps a lesson on how to do business Italian style, as the government of Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has come up with a rescue package extraordinaire - as promised in his electoral campaign earlier this year.

The latest plan would see the existing airline broken up and bankruptcy declared for those sections that are losing the most money.

The Italian government has already pushed through changes in its bankruptcy laws this week to allow the rescue operation to take place. It involves dismantling the old company and creating two new ones.

One would have the backing of 16 domestic investors, a group put together by the Italian bank, Intesa SanPaolo. The other would take on all the debt and be put into liquidation.

There would be job losses of around 7,000 or 40 per cent of the workforce, although the government is hoping that any layoffs could be absorbed by other state-owned companies.

The new company that would rise from the ashes of Alitalia, would become a regional airline serving mainly southern Europe and would need investors to cough up a whopping €1 billion.

This is where Air France-KLM could come in. There is an alternative - the German carrier Lufthansa - but the Franco-Dutch group has always been the most likely possible partner according to industry insiders.

And at the moment it appears as though the company could be persuaded up the aisle - yet again - after the release of a statement on Thursday in which it announced that it would be "willing to take a minority stake in the new company of investors currently being put together by Intesa SanPaolo if that package was confirmed."

In other words if it sees that there's a realistic chance of its investment in the new company returning a profit.

Berlusconi's solution even has the thumbs up from the EU transport commissioner, Antonio Tajani, because it apparently it doesn't contravene stringent EU regulations of a country offering state support to a carrier. And instead it's being welcomed as a way to boost competition among airlines within Europe.

If all goes to plan and hands are shaken, contracts signed and the deal done, the "new" airline could be in operation by next month.

So, will Air France-KLM be tempted again?

Don't hold your breath too long, but it looks as though it's on the cards.

When divorce comes before marriage

Air France-KLM has thrown in the towel in its attempt to take over Italy’s strap-cashed national carrier Alitalia.

And yet again it’s for the last time – apparently.

On Monday the Franco-Dutch group released a short statement saying that as far as it was concerned the bid in its current form, was longer legally valid.

It was a response to a request from Alitalia for the legal situation to be made clear after the last round of talks in the soap opera to beat all others collapsed three weeks ago.

At the beginning of April the Franco-Dutch group walked away from the negotiating table frustrated over unions' refusals to accept proposed job losses. It had also discovered that the unions were still apparently trying to seal a deal with an Italian buyer – not that there was a sign of one able to cough up the necessary cash.

So Alitalia needs a buyer – again. And desperately.

By its own calculations it reckons it needs €750 million by June to keep its fleet of ageing, gas-guzzling aircraft in the air and its workforce of 20,000 plus busy.

Even though the Italian government might want to bail it out, European Union legislation prevents it from doing so, unless there are good commercial grounds. That would be hard for Rome to justify as Alitalia is crippled with €1.2 billion worth of debt and hasn’t actually turned an annual profit since 2002.

It’ll be up to Italy’s new government under Silvio Berlusconi, which takes over power next month, to find a solution. Berlusconi is known to be in favour of trying to put together an “Italian option” involving some of the country’s banks with perhaps the Russian airline, Aeroflot, holding a minority stake.

But even by his showman-like standards it would take a very large rabbit pulled from an enormous hat to really save the day. And Alitalia has been there just a little too often before.

The Italian government has been looking around for a potential buyer for its 49.9 per cent stake in the company for more than a year.

The Air France-KLM offer was generally considered to be the only viable one that would allow the Italian flag carrier to return to profitable growth quickly

While it might be curtains for the bid that was on the table, it doesn’t mean that Air France cannot be enticed to make a new one, and for many that’s the only hope Alitalia realistically has of surviving.

Industry experts say that the airline has weeks and at best a few months before it finally goes belly up and it's presently losing money at the rate of more than €1 million a day.

Up in the air - again

It has been an almost never ending story ever since the Italian government started looking around for a buyer to bail out the country’s troubled state airline, Alitalia.

But it looks as though the end is in sight – yet again. How often those words have been said in recent months does not bear repeating. Unhappily it’s unlikely to be the outcome Rome would have wished for.

That’s because Air France-KLM has abandoned its plans to takeover the airline.

Talks collapsed on Wednesday when Air France boss, Jean-Cyril Spinetta, walked away from the negotiating table after discovering that Alitalia’s unions were trying to seal a deal with an Italian company instead.

The French-Dutch group’s offer of €139 million would have meant the loss of 2,100 jobs, the phasing out of Alitalia’s cargo service and part of its maintenance facilities – all of which would have needed the approval of the unions.

When they refused to budge, Spinetta threw in the towel saying that the impasse was regrettable especially as far as he (and many others) were concerned, as the takeover represented the only long-term chance for the airline’s survival.

Alitalia has a debt of around €1.2 billion, loses more than €1 million a day and hasn’t notched up an annual profit since 2002. Just to add to the woes, the company also has a fleet of ageing, gas-guzzling aircraft and a 20,000 plus workforce that seems to spend just as much time on the ground striking as it does in the air flying

The Italian government had been looking around for a potential buyer for its 49.9 per cent stake in the company for more than a year until it finally agreed to the Air France offer.

Before the talks collapsed, the Italian economics minister, Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, had said that the Air France deal was the only lifeline for Alitalia. He had warned beforehand that if the planned purchase failed the only alternative would be to put the airline into emergency administration, with the likely outcome that any restructuring would be even more painful than the consequences of an Air France takeover.

The double whammy was completed on Wednesday when Maurizio Prato resigned. He was the chairman of Alitalia and the man Rome had charged with finding a buyer.

The whole mess leaves the airline even closer to the brink of bankruptcy less than two weeks ahead of parliamentary elections and its shares have been suspended.

One of the principle opponents of the government's sale of Alitalia (to a non-Italian company) has been prime ministerial candidate Silvio Berlusconi.

He and the unions could now well get their wish, with Alitalia indeed not falling into foreign ownership - but instead going under completely.

Waiting in the wings

If the recent rumours of a blossoming love affair between the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and the Italian-born former top model Carla Bruni, prove to have any substance, they won’t be the only Franco-Italian couple to be hitting the headlines this week.

Air France – KLM has outlined its offer to buy Italy’s troubled national carrier Alitalia. A daring move perhaps as when it first announced that it might be making a firm offer back in late November, shares in the Franco-Dutch airline fell by more than six per cent – their biggest drop in more than three years.

But that apparently hasn’t put off the company’s interest in proposing a deal which would see it inject around €750 million into the virtually bankrupt Italian flag carrier.

If successful it would involve a share swap, while allowing the Italian government to retain a stake in the new company.

The attraction for Air France has to be control of the profitable Milan-Rome route and the likelihood of encouraging Italian passengers to use its Paris and Amsterdam hubs for long haul flights. But nonetheless you have to admire the business nerve of any company willing to take on the risk of rescuing the Italian airline as the statistics speak for themselves.

Alitalia has a debt of around €1.2 billion, loses more than €1 million a day and hasn’t notched up an annual profit since 2002. And as if those figures were not bad enough, it also has a fleet of notoriously ageing, gas-guzzling aircraft and a 20,000 plus workforce that seems to spend as much time on the ground striking as it does in the air flying. Little wonder then that the government is so keen to offload it.

And it’s not the first time this year Rome has tried to find a buyer. A previous attempt failed after all the bidders withdrew, mainly over concerns as to the airline’s precarious financial situation.

Furthermore any potential buyer can hardly have been encouraged by comments either from the chairman describing Alitalia as “comatose” or the Italian prime minister, Romano Prodi, remarking that the company was “completely out of control.”

This will not be the first time Air France has made overtures towards Alitalia. It first started talks of a merger back in June 2001 but abandoned them opting instead to join forces with KLM three years later.

By anyone’s reckoning turning around the Italian carrier will be a hard task. But many economists rate Air France – KLM as the best bet for a long-term restructuring of Alitalia as it has far deeper pockets than either of its main competitors.

The financial risks involved could be considerable for all sides involved, but time is running out and Rome has set a Christmas deadline for the sale.

But there again a decision was due last week, was delayed – again. So expect more news this week for a marriage not quite made in heaven – perhaps.