MeridianaFly: The 2nd largest Italian airline
On last Sunday, February 28, 2010: an important day for the Italian air transport sector. A new
company was founded called Meridiana Fly, the second largest airline company in Italy
which merges two renowned air transport businesses: Meridiana and Eurofly. The
merger transaction which commenced last November has finally come to an end and
sees the integrations of their networks, fleets, organizational, commercial and
administrative structures.
The integration of these two carriers comprising Meridiana Fly SpA, currently the only
Italian company listed on the Milan Stock Exchange (trading code EEZ), has led to an
improvement in network organization procedures which now comprises 90 destinations
in Italy and around the world, with over 1500 flights per week, focusing on five main
base airports: Olbia, Milan Malpensa, Verona, Florence and Cagliari.
This organizational model will consolidate the airline’s performance regarding
punctuality and regularity, which is currently inline with the top carriers in this sector,
and respectively 85% and 99%. The merger will improve the streamlining of operating
costs, increased flexibility of airline operations conducted on a number of main base
airports and supported by a team that combines a variety of fundamental experience in
the sector, including both main airline and charter flight.
Meridian Fly offers an extensive network of intercontinental, international and domestic
flights mainly departing from airports located in Northern and Central areas of Italy and,
due to services provided by its domestic network, it also flies to all the major airports in
the South of Italy, Sicily and Sardinia. The airline will serve a total of 7 intercontinental
destinations, 48 international destinations (Europe and surrounding Countries) and 32
domestic ones. Furthermore, when the summer flight schedule commences, the network
of connections will expand even further with the addition of a number of new
destinations.
The "new" Meridiana Fly company will have a fleet at its disposal with recently
renovated cabin interiors on both the Airbus 320, 319 and 330, and the MD82. For a
while, Meridiana will continue to use aircraft carrying the Meridiana and Eurofly logos
and airline codes, a fleet of 35 aircraft, including 17 MD82, 9 A320s, 4 A319s and 2
ATR 42, whilst the airline code the company will use will be IG, which has
characterised Meridiana’s business since its incorporation in 1963, under the name of
Alisarda.