Probably not many of Alitalia's 22,500 workforce had ever heard of Mr Mario Stella Richter prior to a shareholders' meeting in Rome on Wednesday. Mr Richter attended the meeting in the role of treasury ministry representative, given that the Italian state is still the major shareholder in Alitalia, with a 62.33 per cent stake.
His words to the assembly were short but not sweet, strong on bureaucratic understatement but brutally clear. If a rescue plan currently proposed by Alitalia chief executive Mr Giancarlo Cimoli does not go through by next Wednesday, stated Mr Richter, then there is a serious risk of "company termination".
Put simply, the man from the treasury was underscoring the views of Mr Cimoli who, for more than a month now, has been sounding dire warnings to the Airline's trade unions - either you accept 5,000 job losses within the ambit of a turnaround plan or Alitalia goes bust.
Wednesday's shareholders' meeting was but the latest station in an almost decade long Via Crucis for the Italian flag carrier. The most recent estimates suggest that Alitalia lost €330 million in the first half of this year, roughly €2 million a day. Last year, the company returned losses of €373.3 million (96 per cent up on the 2002 figure of €118.5 million) while its debt is estimated at €1.44 billion.
Like other airlines, Alitalia has been hit hard by the impact of the September 11th terror attacks, by the growth of low-cost carriers and by the rise in aviation fuel prices. On top of those factors, however, Alitalia has also suffered from the management mindset of the old-style, Italian state entity where political party affiliations mattered as much as management efficiency and where, at the end of the day, the state picked up the tab anyway.
In terms of the world market, Alitalia's decline means that it fails to make the top 10 airlines in either the "market cap" or "revenue per passenger per kilometre" categories. For the record, British Airways ranks sixth, Ryanair ninth and Air France 10th in the "market cap" category.
The grim figures have inevitably caused a great deal of shakedown at Alitalia. Since February, the company has had three different chief executives, with first Mr Francesco Mengozzi and, three months later, Mr Marco Zanichelli being given the heave-ho in order to make way for Mr Cimoli.
The sackings of both chief executives came against the background of a winter and spring of industrial unrest that saw the loss of 1,500 flights in April and May as outraged unions rejected management's cost-cutting plans.
If the unions did not like Alitalia's proposed turnaround plan of 12 months ago, calling for 2,700 job losses, they were hardly likely to jump up and down for joy when Mr Cimoli announced last month that salaries could be guaranteed only for September and that his latest restructuring plan envisaged 5,000 lay-offs.
Alitalia's immediate future has been guaranteed by a €400 million emergency loan from the government, but - and this was the reason for the presence of the man from the ministry at the shareholders' meeting - Alitalia cannot draw on these funds until the rescue plan is in place.
Furthermore, according to Mr Cimoli, even this loan will run out in the early months of next year, triggering the need for a further injection of fresh capital.
At that point, too, Alitalia could run into serious difficulties with the European Union. Speaking last weekend, EU Transport Commissioner Ms Loyola de Palacio warned about Alitalia's plans to raise its capital by a further €1.5 billion by March, saying the Italian government must maintain its long-held promise to privatise the company.
"A capital increase where the state remains a majority shareholder will be rejected a plan must be drawn up that is acceptable to the private sector or they will have to close it down," she said.
Under Mr Cimoli's most recent plan, not only would 5,000 jobs go, but the company would also be divided into a flight-operations business (AZ Fly) and a service business (AZ Service).
It forecasts a break-even scenario by 2006, with the company posting a €1.03 billion profit by 2008.
Not surprisingly, the unions have asked for more details about the plan. They have also appealed to the government to intervene directly in the negotiations with Alitalia. Thus far, the government has declined the invitation. The days of picking up the tab are gone.
If either Alitalia or the unions were looking for advice, it came this week from the unexpected source of Mr Michael O'Leary, boss of Ryanair.
While in Rome on Wednesday to promote new routes out of Ciampino airport, Mr O'Leary offered this advice: "They should copy Ryanair, of course. I would close all the contracts with travel agencies and concentrate everything on internet sales, where we sell 97 per cent of our tickets.
"Then, clearly, you have to reduce labour costs. There is a problem there, all right - with a workforce of 2,500 we transport 28 million passengers, while Alitalia, with a workforce of 20,000, manages only 20 million passengers.
"The problem is that, for years, Alitalia operated in a state monopoly situation, where its inefficiency was covered by the consumer and the tax payer. That is no longer possible."
He said it.
