Alitalia adviser to contact potential suitors
(Adds minister comments on industrial action, last 4 paras)
ROME, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Alitalia's AZPIa.MI investment bank adviser will contact potential suitors by the end of this month as part of the struggling Italian carrier's latest search for a buyer, the airline's chairman said on Thursday.
Alitalia is starting from scratch in its hunt for suitors after an auction for the Italian government's 49.9 percent stake fell apart in July when all the bidders pulled out.
Italy's national airline has since its given new chairman, Maurizio Prato, the task of identifying suitors and appointed Citigroup as its adviser on the sale.
All who took part in the failed auction will be contacted, along with others who have shown interest, Prato told reporters. So far, the airline has not received any expressions of interest, he said.
All the final bidders in that auction -- smaller Italian carrier Air One [AIR.UL], Russian airline Aeroflot (AFLT.MM) and private equity groups TPG [TPG.UL] and MatlinPatterson -- have previously said they could be tempted back if terms of the sale changed.
Aeroflot said this week, however, it was not interested in Alitalia "under the current context," since it had not received any new proposals from the airline.
Air France (AIRF.PA) -- Alitalia's long-time partner and once considered its most likely buyer -- snubbed the auction but said on Wednesday it would listen if approached by the Italian airline's management. Sources at bourse regulator Consob said Prato outlined the airline's new "survival" plan, which covers 2008-2010, to the watchdog on Thursday ahead of a Friday board meeting on it.
The airline has also said it will seek a fresh cash infusion to stay afloat.
The plan includes scaling back operations at its Milan Malpensa hub, which has sparked an outcry from local politicians and officials who fear the local economic damage.
Right after the plan was announced last week, Alitalia cancelled tens of Milan flights, officially due to "technical problems." But Italian media reported they were spurred by protesting pilots launching a 'work-to-contract' action.
Civil aviation authority ENAC opened a probe over the issue, and Transport Minister Alessandro Bianchi said the agency's report on the matter contained "worrying elements."
"There are elements of anomaly: first of all the fact that no strike had been called," Bianchi told reporters.
The minister is due to meet ENAC's chairman on Monday.
Alitalia's tough unions, who often stage crippling strikes, are expected to be among its main challenges in finding a buyer and in meeting the goals of its plan to become leaner.
((Reporting by Rome newsroom, editing by David Holmes and Braden Reddall; +39 06 8522 4369, deepa.babington.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: ALITALIA SALE/
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