Mubasher: Meridiana, which is partly owned by Qatar Airways, on Tuesday announced renaming the carrier "Air Italy" in a bid to grow its fleet and passenger numbers fourfold by 2022. 

Air Italy aims at operating 50 planes by 2022, as the Italian airline will receive 20 new Boeing 737 MAX aircraft within the coming three years starting from April 2018.

Qatar Airways will lease five of its Airbus A330-200 to Air Italy “at market prices”, Reuters reported, citing CEO Akbar Al Baker as saying.

"We're working to build an efficient airline with high quality services that offers an alternative to Italians and to all international tourists who want to visit Italy,"  Al Baker added.