Alisarda S.p.A. operating as Alisarda was an Italian airline based in Olbia, Sardinia that operated between 1963 and 1991 before it merged with Universair to become

Meridiana Meridiana Fly S.p.A., operating as Meridiana (formerly named ''Meridiana S.p.A.''), was a privately owned Italian airline headquartered in Olbia with its main base at Olbia Costa Smeralda Airport. It operated scheduled and charter flights to do ...

. As of 2019, Alisarda S.p.A. is a holding company with a 51% stake in Meridiana successor airline

Air Italy Air Italy may refer to: *Air Italy (2005–2018) *Air Italy (2018–2020) Air Italy (registered as AIR ITALY S.p.A.) was a privately owned Italian airline, headquartered in Olbia, Sardinia. In 2019, the company was the second largest airline i ...

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 Karim ...

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 comm ...

. Scheduled operations began in . The airline used

Nord 262 Nord, a word meaning "north" in several European languages, may refer to: Acronyms * National Organization for Rare Disorders, an American nonprofit organization * New Orleans Recreation Department, New Orleans, Louisiana, US Film and televisi ...

aircraft between Olbia and Rome. These were replaced in 1969 by the Fokker F27 Friendship 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 cit ...

, Bologna 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 h ...

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-9-51 The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 is an American five-abreast single-aisle aircraft designed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was initially produced by the developer company as the Douglas DC-9 until August 1967 and then by McDonnell Douglas. After ...

s and five MD-82s. Scheduled services were flown to Bologna,

, Genoa, Milan, Naples, Olbia,

, Rome and Verona, and Frankfurt, Geneva, Munich, Nice, Paris, Turin and Zurich were served on a seasonal basis. In 1991, Alisarda and the Spanish airline Universair merged, to form

.Hengi, As of 2019, Alisarda is a holding company with a 51% stake in the Meridiana successor airline

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)