Airline bankruptcies usually happen suddenly. Passengers are stranded all over the network and chaos reigns.

Air Italy (formerly Meridiana) has given two weeks notice and will cease operations on February 25th 2020. This is an unusually prolonged period between announcement of a shutdown and ceasing flights. It appears that flights for the next fortnight will be operated by “another carrier” possibly Qatar Airways, who owns 49% of Air Italy.

While the reasons are for the shutdown are complex, the airline’s inability to fly its three 737MAX aircraft for a year no doubt contributed to the abrupt demise.