Alitalia looks set to face a withering week of wildcat strikes, as unions took aim at CEO Giancarlo Cimoli and his cost-cutting plan to rebuild Italy's largest airline.

Union unrest forced Alitalia to cancel at least 121 flights on Sunday, the fourth consecutive day of industrial action that the company warned would likely get worse.

"For tomorrow, there are expected to be numerous delays and up to 250 cancellations," Alitalia said in a statement. The airline only has about 800 flights per day, a spokesman said.

Hardest hit were ground activities as workers - angry over being shifted into a service spin-off company - blocked inspections needed to get aircraft off the ground, unions said.

Union bosses, in a partial compromise, agreed on Sunday to call off a formal strike scheduled for the following day after the government agreed to meet with them on Wednesday.

But they will continue with informal unrest that is proving equally damaging to the loss-making flag carrier, nearly 50 percent owned by the Italian state.

"The meeting with the government, important and awaited, is not the solution to the problems but just the start of the discussions," the country's largest unions said a joint statement.

"For this reason, the ongoing mobilizations will continue through the permanent assemblies that we have been holding for days with the workers."

With workers in non-stop union "assemblies", union officials said Alitalia would become increasingly crippled.

"From today to Wednesday, the operating situation of the company can only get worse," said Mauro Rossi, a leader at the Filt Cgil union.

Ground crews are worried about Alitalia's spin-off of ground services, which moved thousands of workers off Alitalia's books and onto the accounts of Italian state company, Fintecna. Their futures appear increasingly decoupled from Alitalia's slimmed-down flying unit, unions say.

Union leaders also fear the company's turnaround plan will fail to deliver promises, including profits in 2006.

The industrial action is putting considerable pressure on Alitalia's CEO Giancarlo Cimoli, the architect of the turnaround plan who brokered tough job cuts and a EUR1 billion (USD$1.21 billion) capital increase that saved the company from collapse.

Union sources say privately they want Cimoli out, but leaders are stopping short of making Cimoli's ouster a demand in negotiations.

"We are not asking for a change in the chief executive. That's not up to a union to decide or to propose. That's up to the shareholders," Guglielmo Epifani, the head of Italy's largest union confederation, the CGIL.

"But we'll say one thing: the management of the group is not going well," he was quoted as saying by ANSA news agency.