I haven’t seen this discussed here.

Qatar Airways is aiming to become Italy’s leading carrier through its 49% share in Meridiana which was re-named Air Italy earlier this week. They have a large order of airplanes coming and Qatar is leasing wide-bodies to them. The main hub is at Milan Malpensa. This may sound similar to Etihad’s misadventure with Alitalia but the difference is that Air Italy is privately-owned (the 51%) and with no legacy issues.

It will be interesting to follow this. I wonder how much of this is purely commercial and how much is to rub it into Etihad and their patron. At least Hogan is not involved.

Qatar Airways Unveils Plans for ?Air Italy? | AWIN_Commercial content from Aviation Week