This is what “we want to plan together with tourist operators for the 2024 tourist season, even if we are still a 2-year-old company,” revealed the General Director of ITA, Andrea Benassi, at the opening of the TTG Travel Experience tourism fair in Rimini, Italy.
“We started with 52 aircraft, and next year we will have 96. With the arrival of the Airbus A330 and A329, the fleet will be 66% new generation, and we want to be the Italian carrier of reference and guarantee the mobility of our customers both within the territory and also offering numerous international and intercontinental destinations.
“We will propose a service characterized by sustainability from an economic point of view, an obligation towards taxpayers and our shareholders, and sustainability from an environmental and social point of view.”
Regarding product innovations, the Chief Commercial Officer and CEO of Volare, the loyalty program, Emiliana Limosani, highlighted that for the winter 2023/24 season, ITA Airways will offer 52 destinations, of which 17 [are] national, 23 international, and 12 intercontinental.”
The new intercontinental destinations, Rio de Janeiro and Malè, have been added to the flights already operated to New York, both from Rome Fiumicino and Milan Malpensa and those to Boston, Miami, Los Angeles, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Tokyo, and New Delhi operated from Rome Fiumicino.
This is a motivated operational investment spurred by the excellent commercial results achieved in 2 years with 70% annual growth thanks, above all, to long haul flights, which with 11 destinations, represent 45% of the airline’s revenue. Of the overall flow, 45% originated in the point-to-point and 55% in the connections. The results obtained are thanks to the support of the trade, given that 65% of sales come from the agency network.
In its two years of activity, ITA has carried over 21 million passengers with good results also in the cargo sector. From January 2023 to today the airline has transported over 11 million passengers, 55% more versus 2022, with an average load factor of 80%, 7.5 percentage points more than the same period of 2022 with an increase in passenger revenues equal to +83% compared to the first 9 months of 2022. Limosani added:
“We look to the future with confidence, especially for intercontinental development.”
“Our next stop is the opening of the new Rome Fiumicino – Rio de Janeiro flight. South America, where we already operate towards Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires, is a market in which we are a leader in terms of traffic to and from Italy thanks to one of the largest communities of Italians in the world.”
There is a strong commitment from ITA Airways also on pure leisure with the resumption of direct flights to the Maldives and of charter operations, an area which in 2 years has totaled over 600 flights. “All this,” Limosani continued, “will be possible thanks to the continuous renewal of the fleet which will also be able to count on the entry of the new Airbus A321neo and A220-100 latest generation aircraft.”
More Flights
The news from ITA Airways includes a direct flight from Rome Fiumicino from December 16, 2023, until April 2024 to Malè (Maldives) with an Airbus A330-900, with 3-5 frequencies per week depending on the period.
From April 7, 2024, a new direct flight from Rome Fiumicino to Chicago will be operational, with 6 weekly frequencies. From May 1, 2024, a new flight will be operational from Rome Fiumicino to Toronto, with 6 weekly frequencies reaching from June 7. And from May 2024, there will be a direct flight to Riyadh from June 2024 to Accra and Kuwait, from July 2024 a connection to Dakar, and finally from October 2024 a direct flight to Jeddah.
The first Airbus A321neo is expected to enter the fleet by the end of the year, an absolute novelty for the airline. It will be the first narrow body aircraft configured with 3 separate cabins: Business Class, Premium Economy, and Economy (including Comfort Economy).
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