ITALY’S former national air carrier Alitalia has started procedures for the collective dismissal of its remaining 2,059 employees, the bankrupt airline’s administrators have told unions.

Those who stand to lose their jobs in January include more than 1,100 flight attendants and 82 pilots, according to a letter sent to the unions last week, as the company moves towards final liquidation.

The redundancies come as the successor to Alitalia, ITA Airways, faces obstacles to its merger plans with German Lufthansa.

According to local media reports, talks stalled after the Italian Economy Ministry rejected Lufthansa’s request for a cut in the price of a 41 per cent stake in ITA Airways.

Lufthansa argues that the government-owned Italian airline would lose value due to its poor performance in the fourth quarter of the year.

The German airline vowed to stick to the 2023 terms of the contract for its investment in ITA, adding that it “had signed the necessary remedy package by the agreed deadline.”