On Friday, ITA Airways' first Airbus A330-900 with a new blue livery, temporary registration F-WWYO, was moved out of the hangar at the Airbus Final Assembly Line an the European manufacturer's headquarters in Toulouse, France. This plane is expected to be delivered in the summer.
A new plane incoming
ITA Airways is ready to receive its first Airbus A330-900 painted with the iconic blue livery of the company. The widebody jet was spotted on Friday out of the hangar at the Airbus Final Assembly Line. This plane is named after Gelindo Bordin, an Olympic champion in Seoul in 1988 and the first Italian gold medalist in the five-ring marathon.
ITA Airways expects to receive 17 A330neos in the future, according to data from ch-aviation. The company currently has a fleet of 71 aircraft, including eight Airbus A330-200s. The first A330-900 was spotted with French registration F-WWYO, although ch-aviation already has it listed with its delivery registration, an Irish registration EI-HJN.
The plane is set to have the capacity to carry 291 passengers in a three-class configuration. It will have 237 seats in economy, 24 in premium economy, and 30 in business. That’s 14% more seats than the A330-200 it will replace. ITA Airways said introducing the A330neo fleet will be another step toward sustainability. Lighter, quieter, and more efficient, the new plane will benefit from a 25% reduction in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions per seat compared to previous generation aircraft.
ITA Airways expects this aircraft to join the fleet in the summer and serve the company’s long-haul routes and new intercontinental destinations.
A look at ITA’s planned routes with the A330neo
With the projected date of entry being June 1, ITA Airways is already planning to operate four long-haul destinations with the A330neo.
As reported previously by Simple Flying, Miami will be the first destination to see the company’s brand-new A330neos. Other A330neo destinations will be New York John F. Kennedy (JFK), Sao Paulo Guarulhos (GRU), and Delhi (DEL). ITA has scheduled a maximum of five daily A330neo departures from Rome this summer season, each occurring in October and serving Sao Paulo twice (flights AZ678 and AZ674), New York twice (AZ608 and AZ610), and Delhi once (AZ770).
An update on ITA Airways and Lufthansa’s negotiations
This week, it was reported ITA Airways posted a net loss of $529 million in its 2022 financial results. However, total revenue grew to roughly $1.7 billion versus $97.5 million in 2021. Nonetheless, the airline emphasized that its results met expectations. The company was still in a “startup status in a market that was still weak in the first months of the year due to the continuing COVID pandemic.”
Yesterday, the Italian government said negotiations were progressing with Germany’s Lufthansa over the sale of a minority stake in ITA Airways. The two companies have jointly approved ITA’s industrial plan. According to Reuters, the deal could be closed by mid-April and could include Lufthansa purchasing a 40% stake in ITA Airways.
Would you like to travel onboard ITA Airway’s Airbus A330-900 fleet? Have you done it already? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: ch-aviation, Reuters.