Air Italy

If you spotted at Milan Malpensa in 2018 or 2019, you may have come across it: an A330-200 with a white fuselage, large “Air Italy” titles and a colorful, bird-like “Y” on the tail. Air Italy was the ambitious attempt to build a second major Italian network airline alongside Alitalia – with Qatar Airways as co-owner. After just two years it was over. This page shows you where the airline came from, which aircraft it flew and how to identify it with confidence in old photos.

Air Italy at a glance

Air Italy was an Italian airline that flew under this name from March 2018 to February 2020. It was not a new startup in the strict sense but the renamed and repositioned Meridiana – an airline based in Olbia on Sardinia whose roots go back to 1963. The company borrowed the name from a smaller charter airline that already belonged to the Meridiana group and was merged with it in 2018.

The relaunch had a clear background: in 2017, Qatar Airways took a 49 percent stake in the parent company AQA Holding. The 51 percent majority stayed with Alisarda, the original founding company. With fresh capital and aircraft from Doha, an airline with a strong Sardinia business was to become a network airline with a hub at Milan Malpensa and its own long-haul routes.

For a while the plan worked: in 2019, Air Italy was Italy’s second-largest airline by passengers, behind Alitalia. On February 11, 2020, the owners nevertheless decided on voluntary liquidation.

From Alisarda via Meridiana to Air Italy

The story begins on Sardinia. In 1963, Alisarda was created to connect the then still young Costa Smeralda around Olbia with the mainland. In 1991 it became Meridiana, which for decades mainly flew domestic connections and holiday routes. Headquarters and maintenance base stayed in Olbia.

Do not confuse it with its predecessor in name: the original Air Italy flew as a charter airline from 2005 and later belonged to the Meridiana group. If you come across a photo with “Air Italy” titles from before 2018, you are dealing with a different, much smaller company.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code IG: appeared in the flight number, on tickets and display boards, for example on IG996 from Malé.
• ICAO code ISS: used by air traffic control in the flight plan.
• Callsign AIR ITALY: this is how the crews identified themselves on the radio.

Both codes date from the Meridiana era. For your archive, that means: a flight with an IG number from the years before March 2018 was a Meridiana flight, from March 2018 an Air Italy flight – even if some aircraft still wore the old colors during the transition. The post on hybrid and mixed liveries describes such mixed forms.

Qatar Airways as co-owner

Qatar Airways’ 49 percent stake was the engine behind Air Italy. The Gulf airline not only contributed capital but also planned to contribute aircraft: according to the 2018 plans, around 50 aircraft were to be added by 2022, including 20 Boeing 737 MAX 8s and 30 Boeing 787-8s from Qatar Airways’ stock. The 787s never came, though: in May 2019, Air Italy abandoned the plan and relied instead on more A330s from Qatar Airways.

In the network, the two airlines worked closely together. From April 2018, Qatar Airways put its code QR on selected Air Italy flights. Conversely, passengers could continue their journey via Malpensa and Doha Hamad Airport. How such cooperations work is explained in the post Codeshare flights explained; why the Gulf airlines invested so much in stakes is put in context by Emirates, Qatar Airways, Etihad.

More partners followed: codeshares with LATAM Brasil and Bulgaria Air, among others, as well as through-fare agreements with Alaska Airlines for connections in the US and with Aegean Airlines for Athens. Air Italy never joined an alliance.

Air Italy’s fleet

The fleet was small and clearly divided: Airbus for long-haul, Boeing for everything else. The manufacturers of the jets were Airbus and Boeing. At the time of the shutdown in February 2020, it comprised twelve aircraft:

Type	Number (February 2020)	Use	Spotter tip
Airbus A330-200	4	Long-haul from Malpensa	Partly leased from Qatar Airways
Boeing 737 MAX 8	3	Short and medium-haul	Italian launch customer, grounded from March 2019
Boeing 737-800	4	Short and medium-haul	Partly still from the Meridiana era
Boeing 737-700	1	Short and medium-haul	Shortest 737 in the fleet

The A330-200s were the showpiece. Air Italy flew all its intercontinental routes with them, usually with business and economy on board. If you are unsure with old photos whether a long-haul jet is an A330 or an A340, the guide A330 or A340? helps.

The 737 MAX 8 was a prestige project for Air Italy. The airline was the Italian launch customer of the type; the first aircraft was handed over in Seattle on May 11, 2018. Up front, the MAX offered business seats, though in normal three-abreast seating with the middle seat left empty. How to tell it apart from a 737-800 is shown in the overview Telling apart the Boeing 737 Original, Classic, NG and MAX.

The 737 MAX grounding

For Air Italy, the worldwide grounding of the 737 MAX came at the worst possible time. On March 12, 2019, the airline grounded its MAX 8s following an order from the European aviation safety agency EASA. Just as growth was supposed to pick up speed, part of the new short- and medium-haul fleet was missing.

Air Italy responded with leased aircraft. Just two days after the grounding, an Airbus A319 from Bulgaria Air joined. Operations with someone else’s aircraft and often someone else’s crew are called wet leasing – what is behind it is explained in the post Wet leasing explained. For spotters, these months are especially interesting, because aircraft in completely different colors were suddenly flying under IG flight numbers.

Long-haul from Milan Malpensa

Air Italy’s heart beat in Malpensa. Here the airline built its own long-haul network in a short time. It was supplemented by feeders from all over Italy and routes within Europe.

Destination	Start	Note
New York JFK	June 1, 2018	First long-haul route, daily with the A330-200
Miami	June 8, 2018	Second US destination after New York
Bangkok	September 9, 2018	Nonstop from Malpensa
Mumbai and Delhi	Late October 2018	First destinations in India
Los Angeles	April 3, 2019	Expansion to the US West Coast
San Francisco	April 10, 2019	Second West Coast destination
Toronto	May 6, 2019	Only destination in Canada

In addition, Air Italy announced Chicago and planned seasonal leisure destinations such as the Maldives, Tenerife, Mombasa and Zanzibar for winter 2019/20.

The second focus stayed Olbia. The company was based here, and from here Air Italy flew, as Meridiana had, to Milan Linate and Rome Fiumicino. These two routes were subject to government requirements for Sardinia’s basic air service and therefore continued for a while after the rest of the operation had already been shut down.

How to recognize Air Italy

Air Italy’s design was deliberately new and stood out clearly from Meridiana. The fuselage was white, and the “Air Italy” titles stretched across the side as large as an advertising banner. The logo combined burgundy and mint green – the red loosely echoed the color of Qatar Airways. The most striking element was the “Y,” designed as a stylized bird. It appeared as a colorful collage on the tail and once more on the engines.

Another clue is the registration. Alongside Italian I- registrations, several Air Italy jets flew with Irish registration, that is, with EI- on the tail – including A330-200s and 737-800s. Such registrations are common on leased aircraft in Europe and say nothing about the operator. The registration does help you find an aircraft again later with a new operator, though; how to do that is shown in How old is this aircraft?.

The end in February 2020

Despite rapid growth, Air Italy posted losses. The MAX grounding, fierce competition in Milan and the dispute over Qatar Airways’ role made the situation worse. On February 11, 2020, the shareholders Alisarda and Qatar Airways unanimously decided to voluntarily liquidate the company. Qatar Airways stated that it would have carried on if all shareholders had gone along. An attempt by the Italian government to avert the decision was unsuccessful.

The shutdown affected around 1,200 direct employees, and according to the unions about 1,500 people in total. In the series of major collapses of European airlines, Air Italy is one of the shortest cases – more in the post on major airline bankruptcies in Europe. Others later filled the gap in Italy: after the end of Alitalia, ITA Airways took on the role of the national airline, and on long-haul routes from Malpensa, Neos, among others, remained active.

Air Italy in the spotter’s everyday life today

For your logbook, Air Italy is an archive topic with one big advantage: the time span is short and clear. Everything in the Air Italy design comes from just under two years. If you photographed in Malpensa, Olbia or at one of the long-haul destinations during that time, you should label the pictures cleanly – type, registration, place and date.

If you travel to Malpensa today, a detour to the aviation museum Volandia at Milan Malpensa Airport is worthwhile. The airport itself and its role after Air Italy are presented in the entry on Milan Malpensa Airport. And if you are interested in Italian aviation history overall, Air One and Eurofly are two more airlines that now only fly in the archive.

Common mix-ups

• Mixing up Air Italy 2018–2020 with the old charter Air Italy – the older company flew from 2005, was much smaller and merged into the new company in 2018.
• Taking Air Italy for a subsidiary of Qatar Airways – Qatar Airways held only 49 percent, the majority lay with Alisarda.
• Logging Meridiana photos as Air Italy – before March 2018 the operation flew as Meridiana, also with IG flight numbers.
• Attributing every IG flight to an Air Italy aircraft – after the MAX grounding and shortly before the end, leased outside aircraft flew.
• Taking the A330-200 for an A340 – the A330 has two engines, the A340 four.
• Reading EI- registrations as an Irish airline – Irish registration is common on leased aircraft and says nothing about the operator.

Conclusion

Air Italy was a short but striking chapter of Italian aviation: it emerged from Sardinia’s Meridiana, with Qatar Airways as a strong minority owner, with A330 long-haul from Malpensa and Italy’s first 737 MAX. After just under two years, it was all over. For spotters, what remains is a clearly defined era with a distinctive “Y” on the tail – and aircraft whose trail you can follow through the registration.