Drawn-out efforts by the Italian government to sell its 49.9 per cent stake in lossmaking Alitalia took another blow on Thursday when Air One, Italy’s largest private airline, launched a court appeal against the decision to rule it out of the bidding process.

Government officials are concerned that Alitalia will be forced into bankruptcy within months if the proposed sale to Air France-KLM is delayed – either by court action or the political crisis surrounding the collapse of the centre-left government last week.