ITA Airways has made it: it got the 4 Stars from Skytrax. Where it excels and where it can still do better
The three stars were already a bit tight for ITA Airways last year, when the first A330-900s were put in [...]
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The three stars were a little tight for ITA Airways already last year, when the first A330-900s had been put into service, with an excellent Business Class product and an excellent Premium Economy product on board., when compared with that of many European competitors.
But with the increase in the fleet (which is gradually replacing the old A330-200s inherited from Alitalia), l'Entry into service of the three-class A321neo with lie-flat seats in a Business in 1-1 configuration and the addition of the premium cabin Economy also on A350-900s during 2024, the fourth Skytrax Star was indeed in the air.
And, indeed, one week away from the celebration of the Skytrax Awards 2024, British rating agency officially announced that ITA has become a 4 Star company, in fact reaching the top of the rankings in Europe, where no company has Skytrax's 5 Stars (Lufthansa had them, but lost them last year).
Waiting to find out The awards and prizes to be presented on June 24 in London, let's go into the details of the rating given to ITA Airways. In its note, Skytrax explains that "the product rating includes seats, amenities, food & beverage, inflight entertainment, cabin cleanliness, while the service rating includes the performance of both ground and flight staff."
"ITA Airways offers a greatly improved experience, particularly with regard to the seats, IFE, and Wi-Fi in the different booths. The standards of the Food & Beverage are good in Business and Premium Economy, while they can be much less consistent in Economy. The standard of services offered at the airport in Rome is high and some of the Food & Beverage elements of the lounges are excellent."
First of all, it should be noted that. Italy's national airline gives its best on long haul, where it achieved 4 stars for both its Business Class, Premium Economy and Economy products, while on short haul, Business got 4 Stars while Economy stopped at 3 Stars.
Then, class by class of service (Business, Premium Economy, Economy), Skytrax examines the following aspects: airport services (from check-in to priority boarding to baggage claim service), Company-operated lounges at Rome Fiumicino, the board product On the long and short haul, the service of cabin crew On long and short range.
Relative to Business Class, the areas in which ITA. received the highest scores from Skytrax are airport lounges, in-flight product on long-haul and short-haul, long-haul cabin service, while the evaluation is less consistent relative to short-haul cabin service.
Going into a little more detail, regarding the long-haul in-flight product, the cleanliness of the bathrooms and the amenity kit 'only' got 3 Stars (the rest was rated 4 Stars), while on the short-haul the seat (by necessity, it is the same as Economy) also stopped at 3 Stars. As for cabin crew service, the speed and timing of service, the personalization of service, and the presence and attention of the staff stopped at 3 Stars.
Turning to Premium Economy, Skytrax gave 4 stars to all aspects of airport services, onboard product, while aspects of cabin service (speed and timeliness of service, interaction with passengers, friendliness and enthusiasm, staff presence) stopped at 3 Stars.
As for, finally, the Economy, 4 stars were awarded to almost every aspect of the airport experience at Fiumicino, while some items of the on-board product (such as the quality and quantity of meals, wine and beverage selection, cleanliness of bathrooms) stopped at three 3 Stars on both long and short haul; cabin service, on the other hand, both its long and short haul, stopped at 3 Stars in most of the items examined. Translated, very good so-called 'hard product', good but improvable so-called 'soft product'.
With the 4 Stars, ITA joins in the ranking of European carriers. Air France, Lufthansa, Aegean Airlines, Air Dolomiti, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Condor, Finnair, Iberia, KLM, La Compagnie, Lufthansa, Luxair, Swiss, Turkish Airlines, and Virgin Atlantic. Waiting, of course, to know what will happen on June 24.
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