ITA Airways Receives First Airbus A321neo In Hamburg

ITA Airways and Airbus held a delivery ceremony for the Italian carrier’s first Airbus A321neo. This event occurred in the European OEM’s manufacturing facility in Hamburg, as ITA Airways increased its fleet size and now operates six different Airbus aircraft iterations despite only having 88 jets overall.

A new member of the ITA Airways family

On Friday, ITA Airways took delivery of its first Airbus A321neo aircraft. The new narrowbody jet sports the airline’s blue livery, named after Massimiliano Rosolino, an Italian swimmer and Olympic champion in Sydney in 2000. According to data from ch-aviation, this plane has a capacity for 165 passengers in a three-class configuration, including 141 seats in economy, 12 in premium economy, and 12 in business. In addition, each seat is equipped with the latest generation “on-demand” video and audio entertainment system featuring 17.3” (business), 15.6” (premium economy), and 13.3” (economy) low reflectance touchscreen displays with 4K resolution for a simple, smooth, and intuitive user experience.

Francesco Presicce, ITA Airways Chief Technology Officer and Accountable Manager, said,

ITA Airways – an Airbus fan

Despite only having a fleet of 88 jets, ITA Airways is known for having aircraft from six different Airbus families, plus three wet-leased CRJ1000ERs. ITA Airways has planes from the following families: Airbus A220s, A320ceos, A320neos, A330ceos, A330neos, and A350s.

Looking at ch-aviation’s database, ITA Airways has one Airbus A220-100, seven A220-300s, 18 A319ceos, 26 A320ceos, 13 A320neos, one A321neo, eight A330-200s, five A330-900s, and six A350-900s on its fleet.

Photo: ITA Airways.

Francesco Presicce said: “With the arrival of the Airbus A321neo, ITA Airways will include all the last generation Airbus aircraft families – the A220, A320, A330, and A350.”

This amount of fleet diversity has raised questions among specialists about the ultimate goal of having so many different types of aircraft operated by a relatively small company.

ITA Airways is modernizing its fleet, with 63 still on order. These planes will help the Italian company retire older models such as the A319s, A320ceos, and the A330-200s. Per a Cirium analysis, ITA aims to reach a reasonable ratio of 5,500 employees and 94 aircraft (58:1) by 2027.

Moreover, ITA Airways’ love for the Airbus brand is an advantage for the Lufthansa Group (which is looking to have its stake acquisition of the Italian company approved early next year). The current ITA fleet simplifies integration into Lufthansa Group, with the only new variant being the A330neo.

Have you traveled with ITA Airways? How was the experience? Let us know in the comments below.

Source: ch-aviation, Cirium.