Since last year the Italian airline Alitalia ceased operations, in its place the Italian government founded ITA Airways. In 2022 the ministry of economy, sole owner at the time of the airline, started looking to sell the company. In 2023 the Italian government reached an agreement to sell off the carrier to the Lufthansa Group. In this post we’ll look further into the composition of ITA Airways’ fleet in 2023.
ITA’s Fleet Supplier Decision
ITA Airways’ predecessor, Alitalia, was highly inefficient in terms of fleet structure. The old airline used to operate a mixture of aircrafts from different manufacturers, such as:
- Embraer
- Airbus
- Boeing
While the Embraer planes were exclusively short-haul focused, both Boeings and Airbuses flew medium and long-haul sectors. This is a highly inefficient practice, particularly for an airline looking to optimise costs and have the highest flight and cabin crew operational flexibility.
This is exactly why the first decision taken by ITA Airways’ management was to choose to operate planes from only one manufacturer. At the end of many considerations ITA opted for an Airbus only fleet.
ITA Airway’s Fleet in 2023
Now that we’ve gone over the reasoning behind it, let’s look at the structure of ITA Airways’ fleet itself. The new Italian airline acquired part of the old Alitalia aircrafts but reduces significantly the numero of planes operated.
Alitalia had just under 100 planes at the moment operations ceased. Right now ITA Airways has 75, including the latest additions to the fleet: the A350-900, A320neo and A330neo.
Medium/Short-Haul ITA Airways Fleet
The vast majority the airline’s fleet is comprised medium or short haul planes. Out of a total of 75, 56 are medium/short haul aircraft. This is bound to change as the airline has a number of orders in place for modern wide bodied long haul planes.
At the moment though this is what the medium/short haul fleet looks like:
- 5 A220-300
- 18 Airbus A319-100
- 26 Airbus A320-200
- 8 A320neo
Almost all of this fleet of older planes will be replaced in the coming months and years with new generations gets. ITA has orders for:
- 7 A220-100
- 10 A220-300
- 20 A320neo
- 9 A321neo
Long-Haul ITA Airways Fleet
At the moment the Italian airline has currently 18 planes serving its long haul network. These are:
- 8 Airbus A330-200
- 4 Airbus A330-900
- 6 Airbus A350-900
However orders for new planes will replace the older A330s in the coming months by the planes ordered. Specifically the orders are for:
- 13 Airbus A330-900
It is very likely that ITA Airways will serve a much larger international network in the coming years from its hubs in Rome Fiumicino (FCO) and Milan Malmpensa (MXP).
Keep in mind though that plans may further change for the young Italian carrier if sale actually does take place.
