Alisarda S.p.A. operating as Alisarda was an Italian airline based in

Olbia Olbia (, ; sc, Terranoa; sdn, Tarranoa) is a city and commune of 60,346 inhabitants (May 2018) in the Italian insular province of Sassari in northeastern Sardinia, Italy, in the historical region of Gallura. Called ''Olbia'' in the Roman age ...

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label= Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, aft ...

that operated between 1963 and 1991 before it merged with Universair to become Meridiana. As of 2019, Alisarda S.p.A. is a holding company with a 51% stake in Meridiana successor airline Air Italy.

History

Alisarda was founded by the

Aga Khan Aga Khan ( fa, آقاخان, ar, آغا خان; also transliterated as ''Aqa Khan'' and ''Agha Khan'') is a title held by the Imām of the Nizari Ismāʿīli Shias. Since 1957, the holder of the title has been the 49th Imām, Prince Shah Kari ...

in as an air taxi and charter company to serve the

Costa Smeralda The Costa Smeralda (, ; sdn, Monti di Mola; sc, Montes de Mola) is a coastal area and tourist destination in northern Sardinia, Italy, with a length of some 20 km, although the term originally designated only a small stretch in the com ...

. Scheduled operations began in . The airline used Nord 262 aircraft between Olbia and

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. These were replaced in 1969 by the

Fokker F27 Friendship The Fokker F27 Friendship is a turboprop airliner developed and manufactured by the Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker. It is the most numerous post-war aircraft manufactured in the Netherlands; the F27 was also one of the most successful Eur ...

and with those aircraft, routes to

Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the ci ...

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different na ...

and

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...

were commenced. The next aircraft type to be introduced was the Douglas DC-9-14 twin-jet airliner with which charter flights to Germany were started. By 1975 the fleet was wholly composed of DC-9s. In the early 1980s it was an associate company of Consorzio Della Costa Smeralda in which

Prince Karim Aga Khan Shāh Karim al-Husayni (born 13 December 1936), known by the religious title Mawlānā Hazar Imam by his Ismaili followers and elsewhere as Aga Khan IV, is the 49th and current Imam of Nizari Ismailis, a denomination within Shia Islam. He ...

had a majority shareholding. In 1986, Alisarda took 50% ownership of the newly-created Avianova. In mid-1987, the carrier took delivery of a second MD-82 and a third aircraft of the type was ordered. At March 1990, the number of employees was approximately 1,000 and the president was Sergio Peralda. At this time, the airline was owned by a number of financial groups in which Prince Karim Aga Khan had a major interest. The fleet consisted of six McDonnell Douglas DC-9-51s and five MD-82s. Scheduled services were flown to

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adm ...

and

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city municipality in the region and the second largest in nor ...

, and

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situa ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

and Zurich were served on a seasonal basis. In 1991, Alisarda and the Spanish airline Universair merged, to form Meridiana.Hengi, As of 2019, Alisarda is a holding company with a 51% stake in the Meridiana successor airline Air Italy.

Fleet

Over the years, Alisarda operated the following aircraft: Douglas DC-9-14 I-SARV Alisarda FRA 06

Gallery

File:Alisarda DC-9 I-SARJ 1.jpg, An Alisarda DC-9 on arrival at Pisa Airport in 1974 File:Alisarda F-27 I-SARK 01.jpg, Fokker F-27 I-SARK File:Alisarda DC-9 I-SARV 1.jpg, Alisarda DC-9 I-SARV File:Alisarda F-27 I-SARO.jpg, Fokker F-27 I-SARO

References

* {{Airlines of Italy Italian companies established in 1963 Italian companies disestablished in 1991 Defunct airlines of Italy Transport in Sardinia Airlines established in 1963 Airlines disestablished in 1991 it:Meridiana (azienda)