Alitalia's board was set to approve a four-year rescue plan on Monday needed to unlock a 400 million euro emergency loan and prevent bankruptcy, after unions agreed to thousands of job cuts.
But Alitalia said the carrier's final structure would only emerge later after its controversial plan to break the company into two parts was met by an outcry from labour.
Alitalia Chief Executive Giancarlo Cimoli will meet with the airline's board of directors at 6:30 pm (1630 GMT), and the company was expected to release a statement late on Monday confirming the 2005-2008 turnaround programme.
Alitalia's volatile shares were 3.86 percent higher in late afternoon trading at around 0.30 euros, having risen more than 30 percent in the last two weeks.
"The stock is like a number on a roulette wheel," a Milan-based trader said. "It's completely in the hands of the speculators."
Unions have agreed to roughly 3,700 job cuts - or just over a sixth of the airline's workforce of 20,700.