Don't you think you're going a bit OTT. The French are intensely patriotic but the same can be said about the Americans, Italians, Irish etc. KLM is a hugely profitable company and there isn't the slightest chance of them going bankrupt in the near future. As for Airbus a lot of their problems have been caused by constant infighting within the organisation, and its not true to say that the French are the source of all their problems. As for Alitalia, I'd say if they had a choice they wouldn't touch it with a barge pole but Jacque Chirac wants to do a favour to Romano Prodi by saving the jobs of all the Alitalia workers. The French Government do still own 19% of Air France and have significant sway within the company.