ITA Airways the A320neo named after Carolina Kostner is a "special" plane(but not perfect)
ITA Airways' fleet will look profoundly different at the end of the year. Barring any surprises, in fact, there will also be a new partner [...]
ITA Airways
SkyTeam
ITA Airways' fleet will look profoundly different at the end of the year. In fact, barring any surprises, there will also be a new reference partner, but the one that entered service on Tuesday, April 18, unveiled the next day with pomp and circumstance, Is a plane unlike any other.
The new fleet
In this article:
Since June 2022 ITA has put several new aircraft into operation. A350s first, followed by from small A220 and finally the first A320neo arrived at the beginning of the year.
All these planes, however, arrived In blue livery, and more, Through external factors. All were conceived, designed and set up for other carriers. Then the covid crisis and the war in Ukraine changed the world balance and ITA had a chance to grab, skipping years of waiting list, many new airplanes.
Like when you buy a KM0 car, you spend less and avoid waiting for delivery, but you take what others have configured. And that's what happened.
Why this A320neo is special
This is the first aircraft ordered by ITA Airways and configured from scratch. This means that it was the Italian company's engineers who defined every single detail.
"We chose everything about this plane," explained ITA Airways' No. 1 Lazzerini, "from the carpeting to the seats, from the lighting to the seating layout. As of today, all future planes entering the fleet--there will be more than 30 this year--will have this line of configuration, colors, leathers and finishes.
The new A320neo Caronlina Kostner
No surprises, the configuration is the classic 3-3 as on all low-cost carriers and as on all European carriers that have had this model in their fleets for years.
Therefore, there is no real business class surprise, or larger business class seats for an aircraft that ITA uses for both domestic connections, but also for medium-haul flights such as Rome Tel Aviv. Thus, there are 33 rows on board, but in keeping with tradition The two superstitious numbers 13 and 17 are missing, With chairs that are all identical.
The only difference is. the first 5 rows have more leg room.
Row 1 as traditionally the most spacious of all, but it is also the one that has the fixed seats with the tables hidden in the armrests: this means that you will not be able to spread out by being confined to your seat.
From row 2 to row 5 there is a kind of premium comfort as is the case for long-haul. It's not a lot of cm, but considering that in the vast majority of cases these planes will fly for at most a couple of hours, it can make a difference. Also in terms of comfort for working on the table, this space makes so much difference.
Extra inches that will obviously benefit business class passengers, but on domestic routes you are unlikely to have that many seats in Superior, so they will become the most desired seats on the plane.
As always, I remember that machine changes can always happen, especially on this type of aircraft. So on the one hand ITA is unlikely to sell these places with extra, but just as unlikely to complain if one does not find this A320neo at the gate.
The things I don't like about this A320neo
The hatboxes of these A320neo are much smaller than the previous A320neo that entered the fleet, and smaller than the A220s that entered service last fall. The reason is that the first A320neo were KM0s already ordered by other carriers, while this one, as explained above, was ordered from scratch by ITA. Affecting the choice was the difficulty in finding suppliers. Specifically, as explained to me by ITA, the choice was small hatboxes and plane immediately, large hatboxes and plane at a later date.
The coffee table is generous, but the structure is "wobbly" and decidedly unstable. There is not, as I have seen on other seats on similar aircraft, an insulated cup holder or even the very convenient cell phone holder as on the A220.
There are only four USB sockets for three passengers. In the A220s, on the other hand, there are two outlets for each passenger. It may seem trivial, but since these planes will be mostly used for medium-haul, not having a personal power outlet can be problematic and generate arguments among passengers. In this case, the answer is technical, the A320 wiring harnesses provide for at most those two positions For power ports.
There is Wi-fi
Before I am misunderstood, I mean that the plane is equipped with the antenna on the roof and wi.fi on board. Unlike the A220s, which are equipped but have never activated the service, here at least the SSID of the wireless network was configured, which is called ITAAirwaysWIFI.
Now we will see whether the service will be activated or whether we will continue to travel in the dark, while other companies, even the low-cost ones, give away connection and messaging.
In conclusion
It is an A320neo, dozens of companies use it, it has nothing special for the passenger except that it is quieter than the previous version, While for the company it means lower operating costs (it consumes less), lower maintenance costs (it is new) and higher efficiency.
