Air France-KLM's chief executive said its takeover of Alitalia was in danger of falling apart and warned there was little room to modify a deal that has come under attack from Italian unions and politicians.
Air France-KLM has set March 31 as the date by which all obstacles to the deal -- including union opposition and a USD$2 billion lawsuit by Milan's airport operator -- must be resolved and CEO Jean-Cyril Spinetta ruled out extending the deadline.
Milan airport operator SEA opposes plans to halve the number of flights as part of the deal with Air France-KLM.
Alitalia's unions, angered by plans to exclude a third of the airline's workforce from the deal, are demanding a rethink while Milan's airport operator, also seeking to stem losses at Malpensa, has said it will not drop the lawsuit.
But Spinetta shot down any hopes of major changes to the carrier's plans.
"Everyone knows that the margin for maneuver to improve the plan is non-existent or extremely limited," he told reporters in Rome, where he has been meeting Alitalia management and unions.
Spinetta was quoted earlier on Wednesday as saying "the deal is at risk. But I still have hope".
Alitalia has about 19,000 staff including 7,400 at its troubled ground services unit AZ Servizi, in which Alitalia owns 51 percent. Spinetta said the French carrier planned to take on only 3,300 AZ Servizi workers, of whom 500 would then be axed.
He also confirmed plans to cut about 1,600 jobs in the core airborne activities of Alitalia.
The economy minister overseeing the sale said that if it fails, the government may be forced to appoint an official to run Alitalia, whose cash will run out in a matter of months.
Spinetta and his counterpart at Alitalia, Maurizio Prato, visited the Italian prime minister's office on Wednesday and have called further talks with unions for Thursday after a first round on Tuesday ended in a stalemate.
Spinetta said Alitalia's financial condition had deteriorated further since December, but that he was convinced the airline's addition would not weaken the entire group.
Alitalia shares were suspended several times on Wednesday and fell 30 percent at one point. They have shed more than half their value since the deal was announced on Sunday.
