Business consortium CAI will hold a board meeting on Thursday to discuss its planned bailout of Alitalia, after clinching a deal with the airline's unions on job and wage cuts, a source close to the bailout said.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the board may meet again next week to vote on a capital increase to finance the rescue effort expected to top EUR1 billion euros (USD$1.43 billion).

Alitalia, Italy's largest airline, sought bankruptcy protection in August after buckling under the weight of crippling oil prices, massive debt and soaring losses.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who returned to power in May vowing to rescue the airline, had appealed to Italian investors to bail out the carrier.

CAI -- a group of 16 wealthy Italian entrepreneurs and businesses -- now aims to find a foreign partner for Alitalia and press ahead with a plan to relaunch it as smaller, leaner carrier by early November.