The story
Founded by Aga Khan IV on May 3, 1991, in Olbia.1
Alisarda's legacy
On 3 May 1991, the extraordinary shareholders' meeting of Alisarda resolved to change the company name to Meridiana S.p.A. effective 1 September, and a new logo was created. These changes were made to reflect the expansion of the company's operations to Europe. That same year, new national and international flights were inaugurated from Verona and Florence. A large hangar was built at the Tuscan capital's airport to house and maintain the recently delivered BAe.146s. The British four-engine aircraft immediately opened new routes from the Tuscan capital to Catania and Palermo. In 1992, the fleet consisted of 16 aircraft, including McDonnell Douglas MD-82s, McDonnell Douglas DC-9-51s, and British Aerospace 146-200s. The company employed 1,414 people. That same year, it carried 1,932,000 passengers, generating an operating turnover of 342 billion Liras. By the end of the 1990s, passengers had risen to 3,075,000, reaching 3,531,000 in 2000. At the end of 1999 the company had a 17% Italian market share, 1,500 employees, 21 aircraft, and flew to 16 domestic destinations.
Two mergers in four years
On 19 July 2011, a plan to integrate and acquire fellow Italian charter airline Air Italy was announced. In October, Meridiana fly completely acquired the airline.
In January 2013, following unfavorable financial results and worsening debt, the Aga Khan regained control of the company, recapitalizing it with €uros 190 million. After an initial period of distinction between Meridiana fly and Air Italy, a rebranding process began in the following month of March. In April 2013, when the Air Italy Meridiana Fly returned to its former, shorter name, Meridiana. The Group adopted a common livery and logo, ensuring that Air Italy and Meridiana fly operated together as airlines with the same commercial offering. From then on, even though all flights were operated as Meridiana, two Air Operator Certificates (AOC) remained valid, with their respective operating structures, flight crews, and employment contracts. On 16 May, it launched the new frequent-flyer program Meridiana Club in partnership with Avios. Since 18 November 2014 Meridiana Club frequent flyers were able to earn Avios points on British Airways and from 23 March 2015 on Iberia. In that same December 2014, Meridiana retired its last Airbus aircraft, two A320-200s, to pursue the aim of operating an all Boeing fleet together with Air Italy.
In 2015, the international flight schedule included the following destinations:
from Ancona: Sharm-el-Sheikh
from Bergamo: Cabo Verde, Marsa Alam, Sharm-el-Sheikh
from Milan (Malpensa airport): Dakar, Fort-de-France, Fortaleza, Fuerteventura, Havana, La Romana, Malé, Marsa Alam, Mauritius, Mombasa, Natal, Pemba Island, Santa Clara, Sharm-el-Sheikh, Teneriffe, Varadero, Zanzibar
from Milan (Linate airport): Munich
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from Neaples: London, Madrid
from Rome (Fiumicino airport): Fuerteventura, Marsa Alam, Mauritius, Mombasa, Sharm-el-Sheikh, Teneriffe, Zanzibar
from Verona: Cancun, Fuerteventura, Havana, Marsa Alam, Mombasa, Sharm-el-Sheikh
At the same time, the following Italian cities were connected to each other: Bergamo, Bologna, Cagliari, Catania, Milan (both Linate and Malpensa airports), Neaples, Olbia, Rome, Turin. Verona.
AQA Holding and Qatar Airways partner
On 14 July 2016, an agreement was signed for Qatar Airways to purchase a stake in Meridiana fly. The contract allowed the company to relaunch after years of crisis, thanks to an industrial plan aimed at repaying the Group's debt and growing the brand. On 28 September 2017, Qatar Airways officially acquired 49% of AQA Holding, established earlier that month by Alisarda S.p.A. to control the two airlines. In the following December, the airline announced the restructuring of its network: all routes from Milan-Linate would be abolished with the exception of that to Olbia, while destinations from Milan-Malpensa to New York and Miami would be added, operated with Airbus A330-200s leased from Qatar Airways.
Meridiana further announced that it would become the first Italian airline to take delivery of Boeing 737 MAX 8s. It was also reported that new full-flat business class seats and in-flight Wi-fi would be installed on the new Airbus A330s to be received from Qatar Airways.
Again Air Italy
On 1 March 2018, Meridiana officially changed its name to Air Italy (2nd airline with this corporate name). The change included a new livery and an increase in domestic and international destinations. All of this was intended to make the airline "Italy's national carrier". In reality, things turned out quite differently, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, officially declared on 30 January 2020. As early as February 11, Air Italy resolved to go into voluntary liquidation and cease flight operations.
From Wikipedia’s article on Meridiana, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5