Originally Posted by yabadoo

They're going through a difficult time, losing cash weekly due to operating costs, which in the grand scheme of things would not be so bad as they can justify this as investment in the product etc., but the cash they're losing in funding the investments they made in Alitalia and others is what is causing the problem. As a result, they've had to rein in costs significantly but are doing so in a manner which will hurt them in the long term.
This however is just a hypothesis, long term they may just end up becoming a transportation company (as opposed to a full service airline) and compete with the likes of the long-haul low-cost carriers like Air Asia, Norwegian etc. and be satisfied with that.