Alitalia has enough liquidity to operate until the start of December, the Italian airline's bankruptcy commissioner told trade unions on Monday, according to a union source present at the meeting.

The commissioner, Augusto Fantozzi, also told the unions that he hoped to wrap up the sale of Alitalia assets to the CAI investor group by mid-November, the source said.

CAI plans to merge the profitable parts of Alitalia with domestic rival Air One. It is looking for a partner abroad.

Alitalia's net debt at the end of August stood at EUR1.219 billion euros (USD$1.64 billion), up from EUR1.159 billion at the end of July, the company said in a statement.

At the end of August the airline had liquidity of EUR267 million, down from EUR338 million at the end of July.