ROME (AP) – Italy’s flagship air carrier Alitalia plans to cut 5,000 jobs as part of restructuring efforts aimed at avoiding collapse, news reports and an industry source said Monday. The cuts are almost a fourth of Alitalia’s 22,000-strong workforce.

The Italian news agency ANSA and other reports cited union sources. An industry source confirmed the reports, but did not elaborate.

Alitalia met with nine union leaders at the company’s headquarters in Rome to discuss the restructuring plan and persuade reluctant unions to go along with the efforts.

The approval of the recovery plan is crucial to the company’s survival as it would allow Alitalia to access a $488 million loan approved by the Italian government and the European Union. Without the loan, Alitalia says it has enough liquidity to pay salaries only until the end of this month.

Union leaders said they would meet Tuesday to discuss the plan, and called for further negotiations with the company. But early reaction to the proposed plan was negative.

“I hope there’s some room for negotiations otherwise reaching an accord will be very difficult,” Fabrizio Solari of the transport unit of Italy’s largest union CGIL told the Apcom news agency.

Unions have opposed proposed job cuts over the past year by organizing massive strikes. However, Italian and EU officials in the past weeks have stepped up the pressure on labor confederations.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s government has repeatedly threatened to let the airline collapse unless unions accept the cuts. In Brussels, EU Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio said last week that the layoffs are inevitable.

Alitalia has been tightlipped about the relaunch plan devised by Chairman and Chief Executive Giancarlo Cimoli. But a few details have emerged in the past days.

The plan foresees the creation of a “good” company responsible for flight operations, which the government would aim to privatize as much as possible. The less appealing ground services would be separated into a “bad” company, which state-owned body Fintecna might reportedly buy into.

Cimoli has set a Sept. 15 deadline for the plan’s approval.

Alitalia, which is 62-percent owned by the state, is facing one of its worst times ever.

Still reeling from the massive crisis that hit the airline industry after the Sept. 11 attacks, Alitalia has been struggling amid cutthroat competition from discount carriers and consolidation among established players. In late April and May the company was hit by a series of strikes that grounded some 1,500 flights.

The company has posted an annual profit only four times in the last 16 years. Its debt stood at $2 billion at the end of June, up $265 million since the end of 2003.