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Meridiana Fly S.p.A., operating as Meridiana (formerly named Meridiana S.p.A.), was a privately owned Italy airline headquartered in Olbia with its main base at Olbia Costa Smeralda Airport. It operated scheduled and charter flights to domestic, European and intercontinental destinations from several Italian bases. Some of its operations were carried out by the old Air Italy under the Meridiana brand. It was owned by Qatar Airways through AQA Holding (49%) and Alisarda (51%), who rebranded the airline as the new Air Italy effective 1 March 2018.
On 3 May 1991 in an Extraordinary Shareholders Meeting, the name of the company was changed to Meridiana S.p.A., and a new logo was created. These changes were made to reflect the expansion of the company's operations to Europe.
At the end of February 2010, Meridiana fly, the second-largest carrier in Italy, was created by the merger of Eurofly, a company specialized in long-haul charter flights to holiday destinations, and Meridiana, a scheduled operator of national and European flights, with the primary objective of connecting the main Italian airports with Sardinia and Sicily.
On 16 January 2013, the Board of Directors of Meridiana S.p.A. acknowledged the agreement for the purchase by Meridiana S.p.A. of all the Meridiana fly ordinary shares held by the former shareholders of Air Italy Holding S.r.l. Today the group is run by Meridiana S.p.A. Holding, which controls 89% of Meridiana fly including 100% of Air Italy; the remaining part is quoted to the Milan Stock Exchange but a tender offer was recently launched to delist the company.
On 16 May, it launched the new frequent-flyer program Meridiana Club in partnership with Avios.
In mid-2013, Meridiana offered national and international scheduled flights from the main Italian airports to Sardinia (Olbia, Alghero, and Cagliari), Sicily and Naples as well as holiday destinations such as the Canary Islands, Greece, and the Red Sea. It also serviced the long-haul destinations of the Maldives, Mauritius, Kenya, Zanzibar, Santo Domingo, and Brazil mainly from Milan Malpensa and/or Rome Fiumicino.
In 2014, the airline continued to reposition its brand by launching international flights to Moscow Domodedovo, London Gatwick, Kyiv, Tel Aviv and Nice from Naples and to Brussels, Geneva, London Gatwick, Tel Aviv, Nice, Hamburg, Paris CDG, Moscow Domodedovo and Kyiv from Olbia; reconfirming its leadership in Sardinia and its focus on Naples, Catania, Milan Linate and Verona airport for domestic Italian flights.
Since 18 November 2014 Meridiana Club frequent flyers have been able to earn Avios points on British Airways and from 23 March 2015 on Iberia.
In 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 December 2017, Meridiana announced a restructuring of its route network. While all routes from Milan-Linate except the services to its base in Olbia will be terminated, Meridiana will start year-round long-haul services from Milan-Malpensa to New York City and Miami using Airbus A330-200 aircraft inherited 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.
In February 2018, Meridiana rebranded as Air Italy and announced a plan to expand its fleet and destinations to become Italy's flagship carrier. Air Italy ceased operations in early 2020.
| + Meridiana fleet | ||||||
| Boeing 737-700 | 1 | — | — | 149 | 149 | Transferred to Air Italy |
| Boeing 737-800 | 7 | — | — | 189 | 189 | Transferred to Air Italy |
| Boeing 767-300ER | 3 | — | 12 | 276 | 288 | Transferred to Air Italy |
| — | 304 | 304 | ||||
| + Meridiana historical fleet !Aircraft !Total !Introduced !Retired !Remark |
| EI-DEY, EI-DEZ, EI-DFA, EI-DFP, I-EEZQ |
| I-EEZJ, I-EEZM, EI-EZL |
| LY-ARI leased from DOT LT D-BCRP, D-BCRO leased from Avanti Air |
| EI-IGR, EI-IGS on lease |
| 9H-AMW on lease |
| I-AIGH< |
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