ITA Airways is preparing for its biggest expansion since it replaced the defunct Alitalia in 2021, adding 30 narrow-body and nine wide-body aircraft and new routes to the Middle East, the United States and South America.
The Italian carrier will add its first Airbus A330-900s, which will enable it to land at Washington/Dulles (IAD) and San Francisco (SFO) next summer. The latter destination is not operated by any carrier from Rome.
Washington is a former Alitalia destination, where, according to data obtained by Aviacionline through the Italian National Agency for Civil Aviation (ENAC), 166,179 passengers were mobilized with United and Alitalia in 2019.
Also, with the A330neo, it will fly to Rio de Janeiro (GIG) starting in November, the third destination in South America and the second in Brazil. In 2019, 168,298 passengers were mobilized between Rome and Rio de Janeiro, with Alitalia being the only operator on the route.
ITA currently operates in the region to Buenos Aires/Ezeiza (EZE), with one daily flight on Airbus A350-900 aircraft, and São Paulo/Guarulhos (GRU), with one daily flight on A350-900 and A330-200 aircraft.
The remaining 30 aircraft are Airbus A220-300s, and its first A320neo and Airbus A321neo (LR), the latter of which will enable ITA to serve Riyadh (RUH) and Jeddah (JED) in Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait (KWI), strengthening its existing partnerships with Saudia and Kuwait Airways.
Once the entry of the new aircraft is completed, the company will have a fleet of 96 aircraft. According to Ch-Aviation, ITA currently operates 4 Airbus A220-300s, 18 Airbus A319s, 32 Airbus A320ceo, 8 Airbus A330-200s and 6 Airbus A350-900s.
ITA stated through a press release that 50% of its aircraft will be of the new generation, and that several of them will serve to replace those of previous generations.
In addition, the airline added that its fleet upgrade will help it increase ASKs (available seat kilometers) by 73% compared to 2022, while its capacity on long-haul routes will grow by 107%.
ITA Airways’ orders
The company had ordered 78 aircraft to be received between 2022 and 2025, of which four Airbus A220-300s were the first to arrive under an agreement with the lessor Air Lease Corporation and six Airbus A350-900s via ALAFCO and AFS. The remaining orders consist of:
- Airbus agreement: seven A220-100/300s, eleven Airbus A320neo and ten A330-900s.
- Air Lease Corporation (ALC): eleven Airbus A220-300s, two A320neo, ten A321neo (LR) and five A330neo.
- AerCap: ten Airbus A320neo and two A330-900.
- Avolon: four Airbus A350-900s.
New cash injection
By the end of the month, the Italian carrier will receive a further EUR 400 million in state aid, as part of the original EUR 1.35 billion deal, of which EUR 700 million was part of the creation of ITA Airways.
Following the demise of Alitalia, the European Union authorized Rome to create a new state-backed company, albeit on a smaller scale and with more limited public funding.
Since then, the new company together with the Italian government has held full or partial privatization talks with several interested parties including the Lufthansa Group, investor Certares (Delta Air Lines and Air France/KLM) and MSC Group.
Certares, Delta and Air France-KLM have allowed the Italian State to hold 45% of ITA’s shares (unlike MSC-Lufthansa, which would leave no more than 20%), meaning that the Italian State would retain two of the five board members with broad veto power over strategic decisions and the ability to appoint the airline’s chairman.
The shareholding structure would then consist of Certares with 40.1%, Air France-KLM with 9.9% and Delta with 5%, with the Italian government as the majority shareholder with 45%.
Since the entry of the new Meloni administration, negotiations have stalled, especially when the current government ended the exclusivity of the investor Certares, reopening negotiations with Lufthansa and MSC.
