With its shares suspended, foreign takeover talks fallen apart, and losses of about €1m ($1.6m) a day, Alitalia's chairman, Aristide Police, had some angry shareholders on his hands at the Italian flag-carrier's annual meeting.

Offering just a few budget snacks to the 36 shareholders who struggled out to the airline's remote headquarters on Saturday, Mr Police made no effort to placate them, admitting the airline was facing its "last chance" to survive, and that management had to carry out a "rupture with the past".