Qatar Airways will 'massively grow' Meridiana

Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker stated Qatar Airways will "massively grow" Meridiana, including a relaunch with new aircraft and new branding and an expansion of its European and international network (Reuters, 01-Oct-2017). Meridiana will "over the next six months" start taking delivery of Boeing 787s or A330s, alongside 737 MAX aircraft ordered by Qatar Airways. Mr Al Baker stated the contract terms for Meridiana employees, including salaries, benefits and working hours, were renegotiated as a condition of the agreement. Without disclosing how those terms had changed, he said the changes followed a "a very frank talk with the unions", which had been "very accommodating". "They realised we are not going to just shrink the airline in the beginning, but that we are going to massively grow the carrier to become the real national carrier of Italy", Mr Al-Baker said. He also said that Meridiana "should make sure that the Italian public is properly connected" as Alitalia goes through its bankruptcy proceedings.