Wanted (make that needed): a billionaire sugar daddy (make that daddies), a compliant European Commission, a new bankruptcy law, a foreign partner, lower oil prices, and all of it right now. In short, a miracle. Madonna! Although Silvio Berlusconi has promised exactly that, at the 59th minute of the 11th hour, the fate of Alitalia hangs on a thread.

On paper, the resurrection of the Italian carrier is well on its way. On Friday, the board of state-controlled Alitalia will declare the airline bankrupt and put it into liquidation. A NewCo, headed by Piaggio chief Roberto Colaninno and backed by other high-profile Italian names, such as Mediobanca, Benetton and Intesa Sanpaolo, will then cherry-pick the assets and merge them with local rival, Air One. (First parenthesis: Alitalia’s rebirth eliminates a profitable competitor. Second parenthesis: the NewCo’s investors, answering Berlusconi’s call for “patriotic” businessmen with €1bn of their money, shows the vigour of the Roman market in quid pro quos.)