Italian airline carrier Meridiana changed its name to Air Italy with the backing of its new shareholder, Qatar Airways.

Italian airline Meridiana changed its name to Air Italy with the backing of Qatar Airways, its new shareholder, aiming to become Italy’s flagship carrier as UAE-backed Alitalia undergoes bankruptcy proceedings.

Expansion plan

Re-branded as Air Italy, Meridian unveiled a new restructuring plan to make of Air Italy “a sustainable airline alternative for the people of Italy“, as Qatar Airways’ CEO Akbar al-Baker said on Monday at a press conference in Milan.

“Air Italy will achieve global scale in both fleet and network expansion … We will show that we are the star,” added al-Baker.

Over the next three years, 20 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft will be added to Air Italy’s fleet, the first of which arrives in April 2018. 

Qatar Airways will lease five of its Airbus A330-200 aircraft to Air Italy “at market prices”, al-Baker said.

Beginning from May 2018, Air Italy will add new domestic routes from Milan, while new long-haul destinations to New York, Miami, and Bangkok will be opened by the end of the year.

Meridiana’s chairman said: “Air Italy has an ambition to reach a goal of transporting 10 million passengers per year by 2022 travelling to, from and via Italy. We expect more than 8 million of these to use Milan Malpensa airport.”

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