It has now been a month since ITA Airways, known in short as simply ITA, took over from Alitalia as the Italian flag carrier. The airline, which replaced Alitalia in the SkyTeam alliance shortly after coming into existence, flies an all-Airbus fleet that consists of both narrowbody and widebody aircraft from the European manufacturer. Let’s take a closer look.
The Airbus A330
According to data from ch-aviation.com, there are currently 52 Airbus planes in ITA’s fleet. While narrowbodies are the dominant force, widebodies do also feature in the form of the Airbus A330-200. ITA presently has seven of these dual-aisle twinjets at its disposal, of which four are active. These are ITA’s youngest aircraft, with an average age of 10.2 years old.
Each of these widebodies has 256 seats onboard. This figure primarily consists of the 219-seat economy class cabin, whereby passengers have 31 inches of seat pitch in an eight abreast (2-4-2) layout. There are also 17 premium economy seats, and a 20-person business class cabin. The latter of these sections offers passengers lie-flat comfort in a 1-2-1 layout.
ITA didn’t immediately start flying A330-operated long-haul flights. Indeed, the first took place earlier this month, connecting Rome and New York. Additionally, RadarBox.com shows that ITA has been flying its A330s to Buenos Aires, Doha, and São Paulo.
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The Airbus A319
Moving onto ITA’s short-haul fleet, the airline’s oldest aircraft type is the Airbus A319. The 18 examples of this European narrowbody twinjet that ITA operates, of which 17 are currently active, have an average age of 15.7 years old. The stored example bears the registration EI-IMG, and it hasn’t left Naples since flying there from Rome three weeks ago.
ITA’s A319 capacity amounts to 2,592 seats, meaning that each example can accommodate 144 passengers. These are laid out in an all-economy configuration, although SeatGuru suggests that previous operator Alitalia offered more legroom in the first seven rows. At the time of writing, ITA A319s in the air were bound for the likes of Bari, Brindisi, and Paris.
The Airbus A320
The most common aircraft in the present ITA fleet is the Airbus A320, of which Italy’s new flag carrier currently operates 27 examples. Just one of these (EI-EIC) is presently inactive, having been on the ground since before Alitalia was succeeded by Italia Trasporto Aereo. Indeed, its last flight (from Milan Linate to Rome Fiumicino) took place on January 6th, 2021.
At the time of writing, almost half of ITA’s A320s were in the air, totaling 12 aircraft. They were coming and going from various destinations that expanded beyond Europe to include the likes of Tel Aviv and Tunis. Closer to home, a train of four A320s were hot on each other’s heels, returning to Milan Linate from Catania, Naples, Reggio Calabria, and Rome.
What do you make of ITA’s fleet? Have you had the chance to fly with the new Italian flag carrier yet? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments.
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