ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Italian prime minister-elect Silvio Berlusconi believes Italian investors are ready to bid for ailing airline Alitalia -- but also warned that workers for the national airline faced job cuts, agencies report local media as saying.
Alitalia, reportedly losing $1.6 million a day, has been warned by Italian aviation authorities about its flight license.
Berlusconi made his comments the day after Alitalia was rescued with an emergency short-term loan of €300 million ($478 million) from the Italian government, a government official told CNN.The airline must return the money by the end of the year, the official added.
Speaking on Italian radio, according to The Associated Press, Berlusconi said that with Alitalia temporarily reprieved, Italian investors were now working on a proposed bid. But he added: "No one can guarantee that the number of workers will remain at present levels."
Outgoing Prime Minister Romano Prodi called Tuesday's loan "an act of responsibility" aimed at staving off bankruptcy and the possibility of thousands of lay-offs, according to Italian media reports.
Berlusconi, the former prime minister who won the post again earlier this month, had asked Prodi's government to approve the loan.
The government approved the loan after Air France-KLM pulled its bid to purchase the state-run airline. Alitalia had accepted an offer from the French-Dutch group, but union leaders blocked the sale.
