As to recent developments : Pilots, indeed, have accepted to sing and managed to get 1,550 full time pilots jobs and 139 part time (which is a bit better than the initial cai offer) and captains will get the status of "managerial staff" in the new airline. The two main unions of flight attendants (representing 80 % of f/a) will continue to negotiate on Monday. But can they realistically say "no" ? No. They probably just want to fight till the bitter end in order to minimise damage to their current jobs and salaries.
I don't think it will take long (certainly not 20 years) to get a return on investiment, since, with the new law on bankrupcy adopted by the Berlusconi government, the loss making part of Alitalia can and will go into a company which will be declared bankrupt (and probably the Italian tax payers will foot the bill) and the profit making parts of Alitalia will go into CAI. So, Italian and foreign (LH or AF) investors can start with a clean slate and even if the new airline does not make a profit immediately, it should be able to break even soon and to make a profit in a few years from now (if everything develops "normally", but can one expect things to develop "normally" in Italy ? Just wait and see. Give them a break !).
As to the name of the new airline, why not just keep on calling it Alitalia ? If you call it caitalia or something completely different, people will continue to call it Alitalia (especially if they keep their AZ code), just like many people still do with another airline....
It's an incredible soap opera !