conditions of the loan. The government of Silvio Berlusconi announced plans to sell Alitalia in May 2008, the third attempt since January 2007. The government asked Intesa Sanpaolo to come up with a plan to improve the airline's finances. This plan was presented in August 2008. The government issued also a decree in May 2008 that would exempt Alitalia from disclosing information on this sale to the market. As a consequence the trade in Alitalia stock at the Borsa Italiana in Milan was halted indefinitely by the stock exchange authorities as of 4 June 2008. Intesa Sanpaolo devised the plan in co-operation with the Italian cabinet. The gist of this plan was that Alitalia would file for bankruptcy, and thus be protected from its creditors. The next step of the plan was to split Alitalia in two parts. One part would contain the debts and less promising parts of the company. This part will be liquidated; the Italian government stated that the holders of Italian shares would be compensated. It is not clear what this meant. The other part would contain the landing rights, pilots and some of the planes. This last part was to be bought by a consortium of Italian investors, and to receive an investment of €1 billion, along with new management and the guarantee of the cabinet that the company would free of the old debts of Alitalia and would merge with Air One. This consortium was called CAI, Compagnia Aerea Italiana. Air One and Alitalia together employ 17.000 employees. Minister Sacconi stated that the new company would employ 14.250 employees. Based upon this statement about 3.250 employees would lose their jobs. The new company would hold a share of about 60 percent of the Italian market. The plan also envisaged a form of partnership with an unspecified foreign carrier. The plan needed to be approved by the Italian unions. In Brussels Silvio Berlusconi said that union approval was a necessity but "no" was hardly an option. On 29 August 2008 the airline filed for bankruptcy protection. Under the new measures the airline will continue to fly as restructuring measures are carried out. CAI, Compagnia Aerea Italiana, a consortium of Italian investors, came forward with a plan to take over Alitalia. CAI set several conditions to be met before they would invest in Alitalia. On Monday 8 September 2008, more than half of the workers' unions