[AMcWhirter]

Latest news, in Italian only so far, is that Qatar Airways – backed Air Italy has failed.

https://www.airitaly.com/it/investor_relations/comunicati_stampa.aspx

The airline’s statement says that all flights from February 11 to February 25 will be operated by other carriers.

Almost two years ago we reported on the carrier’s new branding.

Meridiana unveils new Air Italy branding

Yet one year later Air Italy had started to retreat from some long-haul destinations.

Air Italy expected to retreat from India and Thailand

[AMcWhirter]

So another Gulf carrier has lost money investing in Italian aviation.

As someone has just said “it’s fools gold.”

2 users thanked author for this post.

alainboy56, LuganoPirate

[rferguson]

It’s a shame IMHO. I think Air Italy really could have been a success but was limited to several contributing factors:

1) The Italian governments determination at all costs to keep Alitalia alive. How many ‘final bailouts’ has AZ now had? If it was exposed to normal business trading it would be no more and Air Italy would have had a good chance of picking up at least some of the slack.

2) they had a longhaul network with very little feed into MXP from europe. They had literally two or three european cities on the network.

3) the MAX issue

4) QR was limited to 49% of the stock. If they did have outright control, who knows.

[SimonS1]

Agreed – I never did understand their business model.

[canucklad]

Regarding point 3

I’ve copied and pasted , and added to my comments from the dominoes thread…….

You know what, I’m beginning to have little sympathy with those airlines that have got themselves into trouble over the 737 Max issue.

Airlines have deliberately opted for an aircraft (Including Air Italy) more suited for short to mid haul flights , knowing full well that the reason they were buying the aircraft was to cram as many people into a smaller space and fly them long haul regardless of how comfortable the surroundings are.

Flying in a 737, and whatever it’s re-branded as, from Italy to India is still flying in a 737 !

Airlines need to operate at a profit, but relentlessly squeezing that margin at the expense of the passenger, has come back to bite them in the arse, so hell mend them !!

2 users thanked author for this post.

alainboy56, LuganoPirate

[AMcWhirter]

Our piece by Jenni

Air Italy to enter liquidation and cease operations

1 user thanked author for this post.

LuganoPirate

[LuganoPirate]

Shame as it was a good airline. But as others have intimated, better to blow your money on wine and fast cars than in Italian aviation. A casino would likely give a better return!

2 users thanked author for this post.

AMcWhirter, ImissConcorde

[DavidSmith2]

o joy! I am booked with Air Italy in April to fly from Accra to Milan. It will be interesting to see what alternative flight they offer me!

[alainboy56]

@luganopirate —and you probably know what a casino is in Italian …………..

[Author]

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