Alitalia CEO says airline must merge and cut costs to survive slump ROME (AP) =97 Italy's struggling flagship carrier Alitalia must merge and=20 slash costs in order to survive the airline industry's slump, chief=20 executive Francesco Mengozzi said Friday. Alitalia, together with Germany's= =20 Lufthansa, warned earlier this week that it expects to plunge into loss=20 this year as a host of negative factors hit Europe's big airlines. The=20 companies cited competition from low-cost airlines, the Iraq war and the=20 SARS outbreak. In order to survive, Alitalia must "integrate and=20 consolidate with other carriers, undertaking company mergers to develop=20 cost and revenue synergies," Mengozzi told a shareholder's meeting. In=20 January, Alitalia completed a deal with Air France to take 2% stakes in=20 each other. The share swap had been in the cards ever since Alitalia sealed= =20 a partnership with Air France and became a member of the Skyteam airline=20 alliance, which also includes Delta Airlines in July 2001. Mengozzi also=20 told shareholders the privatization of Alitalia was "inevitable" and that=20 he had asked the Treasury Ministry, which still controls 62% of the=20 company, to sell shares on the public market. The government has said it=20 plans to sell stock in Alitalia by year-end as part of an ambitious 20=20 billion euro ($23 billion) pr ivatization program.Separately, shareholders= =20 voted to reconfirm Mengozzi for another three years and named Giuseppe=20 Bonomi, former head of the Milan-based airport administration company Sea,= =20 as chairman with representative powers. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.caribbeanfloral.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************