Speaking after a crisis meeting with union leaders, he said that the situation was “completely out of control — and I don’t see any parachutes. Alitalia is going through the most difficult moment in its history.”

He vowed to come up with a new strategy and business plan, but did not give details of any proposed job cuts or private investment.

Giancarlo Cimoli, the Alitalia chairman, who is to address a parliamentary committee on the plight today, recently forecast a loss this year of €300 million (£205 million) and admitted that a two-year restructuring plan, with job cuts, had failed to make the company profitable. He said that Alitalia “cannot not survive with its current cost structure”.

Alessandro Bianchi, the Transport Minister, who attended the “Alitalia summit” with the three main unions — CGIL, CISL and UIL — at Palazzo Chigi, the Prime Minister’s office, said that there was no point in the Government continuing to “bail out” the troubled airline unless it showed a result on investment.

“What we don’t want to do is put resources in a drawer from where they disappear,” he said. Officials acknowledged that government bridging loans and “recapitalisation” schemes in any case risked falling foul of European Union regulations on state subsidies.

The Government “cannot give state aid to Alitalia, and we don’t want to give any more”, Signor Bianchi said, adding that funds could come “from the market”. He said that he hoped that Signor Prodi’s intervention would encourage private investors, who in the past have steered clear of Alitalia, to reconsider.

After the talks, Signor Prodi said: “We have until January to hammer out a solution which can avert bankruptcy . . . Alitalia has lost its share of the market both at home and abroad and this is a problem that involves the whole country.”

He pledged to halt Alitalia’s decline with new proposals that he would “hammer out” in agreement with the unions, adding: “We must move quickly. We can succeed only if we work together. If we fail, we will be relegated to the sidelines of the European air transport sector.”

Signor Bianchi said that part of the solution lay in “alliances” with other airlines. However Air France and KLM, which Alitalia has approached in the past, have said that they will not enter into a partnership until Alitalia is placed on a more sound footing.

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