Italia Trasporto Aereo (ITA), the startup airline of the Italian government, announced today (Sep 30) that it has chosen Airbus as its fleet renewal provider moving forward. Launch date is still planned for October 15th.
The airline has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the manufacturer for the acquisition of 28 aircraft, for both short- and long-haul operations.
Breaking down the order, ITA said seven aircraft belong to the A220 family, eleven to the A320neo family (both are narrowbodies), and 10 to Airbus A330neo aircraft, the next-generation version of the A330 widebody.
Additionally, ITA announced the signing of an agreement with Air Lease Corporation for the lease of 31 additional next-generation Airbus aircraft, again of both short- and long-haul capabilities.
The orders will start arriving at ITA from the first quarter of 2022 and, by 2025, when the industrial plan of the airline finishes, it plans to have 70% of its fleet composed of next-generation aircraft.
"Grazie Mille" to Italy's #ITA for selecting Airbus aircraft products with an MoU for 7 #A220, 11 #A320neo and 10 #A330neo to start operations.
We look forward to building a sustainable future together, connecting Italy to the world. pic.twitter.com/NvLafKG9p0— Airbus (@Airbus) September 30, 2021
In total, Italia Trasporto Aereo has committed to 56 aircraft for leasing. Thirteen of them are long-haul aircraft, including the Airbus A350-900. The terms and conditions of the agreements are “significantly more advantageous than those reserved to Alitalia”.
ITA also announced that the number of lessors will fall from Alitalia’s 12 to only six.
The airline’s processes are of particular interest to the Italian government since it is the cause ITA was even in the first place; the European Union forbid the country to keep funding Alitalia with taxpayer money by declaring it “illegal”, market-distorting State aid and the solution found was to start an airline from scratch.
“The strategic partnership with Airbus and ALC is crucial to ITA in order to give a boost to our Business Plan on reaching the objective of operating a new fleet [that] respects the environment and with operative and leasing costs significantly low”, said the airline’s executive chair, Alfredo Altavilla, in a press release.
“I want to thank Christian Scherer, Chief Commercial Officer of Airbus, Steven F. Udvar-Házy, chairman of Air Lease Corporation, for granting trust in the future of our new airline.”
ITA will start with 52 airplanes inherited from Alitalia – although it is still not certain that the airline will be able to use Alitalia’s branding – and it plans to reach 105 aircraft by 2025.
“From the beginning, we have worked closely with ITA, listening with attention to their demands”, said Christian Scherer, Airbus’ CCO and Head of Airbus International. “Today we are proud and thankful to be by ITA’s side in the building of its future. Grazie mille!”.
Although Alitalia operated a number of Embraer E-Jets and Boeing 777s, the bulk of its fleet was composed of the Airbus A320 family and the A330s. To simplify and reduce complexity costs, only these are expected to remain in the airline’s fleet.
“Air Lease Corporation is joyful and proud to be the launch lessor of ITA”, said Steven F. Udvar-Házy, chair of ALC, who added, “these agreements will allow ITA to operate with a new and technologically more advanced fleet, to serve with great efficiency its network of European and intercontinental routes.”
