Italy-South America flights: prospects for Ita Airways in the Lufthansa era
With the entry of Lufthansa Group into the capital of Ita Airways (41% for now), the flag carrier's network [...]
ITA Airways
Star Alliance
SkyTeam
FCO
Brazil
Argentina
With the entry of Lufthansa Group into the capital of Ita Airways (for now the 41%) the flag carrier's network will undergo changes focusing on the directions of the business plan that the MEF and the German giant have jointly approved.
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As mentioned several times, Rome Fiumicino will be the hub around which Ita's operations will revolve, which "will not compete with low-cost airlines in the domestic market, but will aim to strengthen the intercontinental connectivity", as Lufthansa's ceo pointed out. Carsten Spohr on the sidelines of the agreement with the Italian government.
Expectations for the long haul
Ita Airways' network, therefore, will definitely target the routes with North America, but Rome will also be strategic for connections to Africa and South America.
The latter seems to be one of the most interesting destinations not only from the perspective of the tricolor airline's operations; but also in the broader network of relationships with what will be the new "partner" airlines from the moment Ita Will join the Star Alliance, Skyteam abandonment.
The state of the art
For European airlines, South America is the third largest long-haul market (based on pre Covid capacity), but already by the end of last year the South American market exceeded 2019 levels.
Last November, the capacity on theEurope-South America axis had already reached 93% compared to pre-pandemic, making it the leading long-haul market from Europe until the overbearing and extraordinary return in 2023 of U.S.-Europe flights.
The airlines with the most seats on these routes are Iberia (including Air Europa) and Air France-Klm: both belong to the two Star Alliance competitors, viz. oneworld for the first and Skyteam For the Franco-Dutch Group.
The Portuguese company Tap - which instead is part of Star Alliance at least until a possible sale (to Air France-Klm? ed.) - plays a significant role with 83 weekly flights in the summer (all to Brazil except Lisbon-Caracas).
Ita Airways flights
For now, Ita Airways' network to South America includes two routes from Rome Fiumicino to Buenos Aires and São Paulo; looking forward to the October 29, 2023 opening of the flight to Rio de Janeiro.
A Airbus A330 that will operate daily flights departing from Rome Fiumicino Airport at 9:50 p.m. and arriving in Rio de Janeiro at 6:05 a.m. The operation from Rio de Janeiro, on the other hand, will depart October 30, 2023 at 3:45 p.m. and land in Rome Fiumicino at 6:45 a.m.
Starting in August 2023, however, Ita will add. 4 weekly frequencies to its daily connections to São Paulo. The new frequencies will be operated with Airbus A330, departing on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays at 7 p.m. and landing at Rome Fiumicino at 11:45 a.m.
The new flights from Rome will be operated with departure at 9:40 a.m. and arrival in São Paulo at 5 p.m. Thanks to the new frequencies and the flight to Rio de Janeiro, therefore, from October will be 18 the weekly frequencies
Flights to Buenos Aires, on the other hand, are operated with the A350, the flagship of the tricolor airline.
The role in Star Alliance
In the view of a Lufthansa-formatted Ita (and Star Alliance) there is room to attack parts of this market, especially if Rome were to become a passenger attractor both for Italy and to be directed over northern Europe.
Putting aside Tap Air Portugal for a moment, in fact, besides the Lufthansa Group there is only Turkish Airlines as a Star Alliance airline operating direct flights to South America.
In this case, despite the recent codeshare agreement between Ita and Turkish, there would be the discrimination for passengers to have to travel east and then head west with a extension of time of travel.
European routes
Ita's challenge on flights to South America will not be easy, however, because among the major Europe-South America routes in 2023 (Simple Flying data) stands out the dominance of precisely the Madrid, Lisbon, and Paris hubs.
The three busiest routes, in fact, are, the Madrid-Bogotá (Avianca-Iberia-Air Europa), the Madrid-Buenos Aires (Iberia-Air Europa-Aerolineas Argentinas) the Madrid-Lima (Iberia-Air Europa-Latam).
They are followed in the top ten by well 5 routes from Sao Paulo with direction Lisbon (Tap and Latam), Madrid (Iberia-Air Europa-Latam), Paris CdG (Air France-Latam), Frankfurt (Lufthansa and Latam) and London Heathrow (British and Latam).
Finally, closing the ranking are the Santiago de Chile-Madrid (Iberia and Latam) and the Santiago de Chile-Paris CdG (Air France-Latam).
The possibilities of Ita
The opportunity for Ita will be to push into markets where it already has a presence-São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires-creating better connections and synergies compared with direct flights to Frankfurt, Munich and Zurich.
At the same time, it will have to deal with competition-already in place-from Aerolineas Argentinas on Rome-Buenos Aires (where, for now, there is a codeshare "link" useful only to feed AA's flights to and from Madrid) and of Latam On Roma-San Paolo.
Aeromexico, on the other hand, launched in June a direct flight from Fiumicino to Mexico City: although there was talk as early as spring of a probable codeshare with Ita on Italy-Mexico routes, in the end nothing came of it (probably because the Mexican airline is part of Skyteam, ed.).
In the background, finally, is the possibility of resuming the old Alitalia route to Santiago de Chile, for example, or try to open new directions on Panama (Copa hub, Star Alliance member) or in Colombia (perhaps in collaboration with Avianca, also a Star Alliance member).
Panama Airport, Copa Airlines
The stop-over example
In general, Ita could develop and make more palatable the so-called stop-over product on Rome to attract more customers traveling in Europe by enticing them to choose Rome as the starting or return point of their intercontinental travel.
Tap Air Portugal, for example, is having great success with this service (selectable online and without additional charges) on Lisbon for passengers from Brazil and the US.
