Ryanair bails out of Alitalia bid as flights crisis grows

RyANAIR has abandoned its bid for Alitalia after its ongoing shortage of pilots forced it to cancel thousands more flights.

Last night the embattled airline notified Alitalia it will not be moving forward with its offer in order to ‘eliminate all management distractions’.

It is a hammer blow for Ryanair’s expansion plans and a sign of the mess the airline has got itself into over its schedules.

It had tendered a non-binding offer for the bust Italian carrier – and was thought to be the frontrunner among ten other bids. Ryanair, which has a dominance in the region, was keen to snap up dozens of other routes at a knock-down price, but all its bold efforts for further growth have now been grounded.

It was plunged into turmoil last week after a pilot rota blunder affected more than 305,000 customers. At the time the carrier revealed it would have to cancel around 40-50 flights a day until the end of October to get around the deal, but axed a further 400,000 bookings yesterday.

The flight cancellations provoked ire from the Italian government, which raised questions as to whether Ryanair would be capable of reviving Alitalia, which was put under special administration in May.

Commenting on the disruptions, transport minister Graziano Delrio said last week: ‘It’s caused a huge amount of inconvenience for Italians and we insist on the absolute respect for passengers’ rights.’

Now, as Ryanair pulls out of bidding for Alitalia, it faces further anger from the Italians.

Ryanair is the largest carrier in Italy and controls 24.3pc of the market, compared with Alitalia’s 17pc. The budget airline also offers flight connections at Rome Fiumicino and Milan Bergamo.

It submitted a bid for Alitalia in July, saying at the time that it would pursue the move only if the Italian government’s influence on the airline was removed.

Alitalia filed to be put under special administration earlier this year – for the second time in less than a decade – after workers rejected wage cuts linked to a £1.7bn rescue plan. It had been hoped that Gulf carrier Etihad Airways, which owns 49pc of the firm after it purchased a £1.5bn stake in 2014, would help turn it into a five-star operator. But Alitalia has lost its standing in Italy to Ryanair and EasyJet, while terrorist attacks in Europe have hurt tourism in the region.

The Italian government, which has invested more than £5.9bn into the airline over the past decade, has also ruled out a bailout. Now the airline will either be overhauled, sold or wound up.

Ryanair said: ‘In order to focus on repairing this rostering problem, Ryanair will eliminate all management distractions, starting with its interest in Alitalia.

‘We have notified the Alitalia bankruptcy commissioners that we will not be pursuing our interest in Alitalia or submitting any further offers for the airline.’