ITA Airways' plans, accounts in order and next year goodbye to old A330-200s
"There is no plan B, because this is a company that was created to join [...].
ITA Airways
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"A plan B does not exist., because this is a company that was created to become part of a large group such as Lufthansa, and because the results so far make us think that Plan A can only succeed."
Thus the president of ITA Airways, Antonino Turicchi, dismissed a question from a Frankfurter Allgemeine reporter who had asked him whether the company had An 'escape route' should the wedding with the Germans fail to go through.
At the Fiumicino headquarters, everything was there. the elite of the Italian flag carrier to illustrate the numbers of the consolidated draft budget, approved at the March 26 BoD meeting. In which it is stated that ITA closed out 2023 with revenues of 2.4 billion euros, a red line of just 5 million (in 2022 it had been 486 million), And a 450 million cash (which obviously does not take into account the 325 million that will come if and when the deal with the Germans gets the okay from the European antitrust and Lufthansa will take Italian carrier's 41%).
Turning to less abstract numbers than those related to accounts, in 2023 ITA made 123 thousand flights (+27% on 2022) for a total of 246 thousand flight hours and carried 14.8 million passengers (+47% compared with the previous year). The fleet as of December 2023 has arrived a 84 aircraft, of which 6 A350-900, 6 A330-900, 7 A330-200, 2 A321neo, 14 A320neo, 25 A320ceo, 14 A319, 8 A220-300 and 2 A220-100. Wet-lease aircraft decreased from 6 to 1 and the average age of the fleet at 8.4 years. 26 new aircraft will enter service in 2024, bringing the total at 96 (22 of them wide body).
As for the frequent flyer program Flying, at the end of December 2023 there were 1million 700 thousand members, which grew to 1 million 850 thousand in mid-March 2024, with 800 children and teens already enrolled in the past few days since the program was opened to under 16s.
The network will be enriched in the coming weeks by two new destinations in North America (Chicago and Toronto), by three in Middle East (Riyadh, Kuwait City and Jeddah) and two in Africa (Dakar and Accra). These last five sprints with ITA's 'jewel', the three-class A321neo.
But after July, no new destinations are currently indicated for what will be winter 2024-2025. The General Manager Andrea Benassi, speaking to The Flight Club, indicated in the "South America and the Middle East" the areas ITA is looking toward., admitting that "Asia, on the other hand, remains a particularly difficult market."
As for the long haul fleet, Benassi confirmed that "by the end of 2025 it will consist of. only from state-of-the-art aircraft".
In a little more than a year and a half, therefore, we will be able to say goodbye to the A330-200s, which in terms of in-flight product are by no means in step with the other wide-body aircraft in the fleet.
And, as for product, the A350-900 retrofit, who will receive a premium economy cabin thus conforming to the A330-900, will begin in April, although it is not known when the upgrade will be completed on all 6 devices in the fleet.
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