War in Israel halts takeoff of ITA Airways' new "jewel," A321neo debut will be to London
In the past few days, I received the email from ITA Airways regarding the cancellation of the flight on the upcoming 1 [...]
ITA Airways
SkyTeam
In recent days, I received the email from ITA Airways regarding the deletion Of next December 1 flight to Tel Aviv, no surprise, it was expected news. I was not displaced by the news, in fact I even appreciated the call from the call center a few days after the email for possible reprotection.
In this article:
As of today ITA still has only 1 daily flight to Israel's capital for sale, but I doubt that given the situation it will be operated.
Why the A321 will not fly to Tel Aviv in this geo-political situation.
As is well known ITA Airways' new fleet is not owned by ITA Airways, but these are planes almost all owned by intermediary companies that then lease the planes to the companies. Not owning the machines puts the company in the situation of having to get the green light from the lessor to operate a route like Tel Aviv, and it is hard to imagine the company putting an asset like a brand new plane at risk for such a route and with all the risks involved.
The same applies to ITA's current fleet, inherited from Alitalia, and owned by several companies. In this case, however, being fairly lived-in aircraft, it is easier to get the green light to operate the route.
In addition to the problem of the renter's green light there is also the insurance problem, that is, by those who would have to compensate for any damage to property and persons. It is hard to imagine that even in this case, an insurance company would give its approval to operate such a route, in the current context, for a brand new aircraft.
The debut to London
Judging from the sales systems debut will slip a few days, from Dec. 1 to Dec. 4, will also change its destination, and instead of heading south, the bow of the new jewel produced in Hamburg will be to the north, namely London. It is precisely the English capital that in recent days received the first A220/100, will also see the first flight of the A321.
If the little A220 flies over the city airport. big brother will fly to LHR with flight AZ204 from the first Monday in December results operated again with the A321neo.
Where to "recycle" the new A321s
ITA's idea was reportedly to operate all routes to Tel Aviv and then with the spring activate the New routes to Africa and the Middle East. Between December and January ITA will receive its first A321s and will have to decide whether and how to use them. I doubt that, even with the end of the conflict, things will immediately return to "the way they were before," and it will be some time before passengers start filling flights to/from Israel again.
Currently, however, I do not see any major routes where to operate these planes, which I remind you are configured with 3 classes of service. From what I understand they would not be usable for flying to the U.S., like those of TAP Portugal, Jetblue and SAS.
Sure could be used spot to cover high load factor routes, such as precisely London, and where to surprise passengers with a superlative product instead of the classic A320s (new or old). This would not be a strange thing since, for example, Finnair flies A350s from Helsinki to London daily, also Turkish flies from Istanbul to major European airports with A330s, Air Europa flies with the Dreamliner also between Madrid and Barcelona.
