Alitalia Early Christmas Gift: We got enough cash through the Holidays

Italy's struggling airline Alitalia has finally succeeded in netting the 300 million euros ($412 million) it needs to keep flying over Christmas after a long drawn-out capital raising, a source with knowledge of the operation said on Tuesday.

The cash call is part of a government-engineered rescue package seen as a stop-gap measure to keep Alitalia in the air until it can find a new partner willing to invest in revamping its operations and making it more profitable.

The airline had to extend the deadline for fresh investment as shareholders aired doubts over its proposed new business plan and worried about the scarcity of potential new partners. The source said that Italy's state-owned postal service, which had been lined up to commit up to 75 million euros in any unsubscribed shares, had to participate in the cash call in the end, although to what extent was not yet known.

Nonrevers beware after January...