After Etihad’s Alitalia purchase, Qatar buys Meridiana airlines

Qatar Airways has signed a shareholders agreement with Alisarda, the parent company of airline Meridiana, to purchase 49 per cent of Meridiana shares by October.

Last year Qatar Airways bought a 9.99% stake in IAG, the parent company of British Airways, Iberia, and Aer Lingus. Earlier in the year they announced that they’d be increasing that stake to 15%.

Meridiana is a fairly small Italian airline that is the country’s second-largest carrier, largely connects major airports in Italy with Sardinia, and has a fleet of 21 aircraft, including MD-80s, 737s, and 767s.

Qatar Airways, the national carrier of the State of Qatar, is one of the fastest growing airlines operating one of the youngest fleets in the world. Now in its 19th year of operations, Qatar Airways has a modern fleet of 188 aircraft flying to more than 150 key business and leisure destinations across six continents.

The move follows the United Arab Emirates’ purchase of a 49% stake in Alitalia, which in turn is now considering a 49% stake acquisition of Air Malta.

Meridiana is not a large airline, and has been losing money with an average fleet age of over 20 years without as many flights into key markets, the aviation blog BoardingArea suggests.

“Presumably Qatar wants more access to the Italian market. Perhaps this will come in the form of Qatar Airways launching more flights to Italy, or it could come in the form of Meridiana launching flights to Doha, so that Qatar Airways can offer connecting flights from there…

“While I understand the Gulf carriers wanting to buy stakes in foreign airlines as a way of diversifying their assets and gaining further soft political power, this particular purchase is puzzling. Meridiana has an old fleet and is losing a lot of money, and I’m not sure exactly what market they have access to that makes this an attractive investment for Qatar.”