ITA Airways to Retire Its Last Airbus A330-200 by January 2026

ITA Airways has been making it clear time and again that they operate in a totally different way to what was Alitalia. For starters the airline is keeping its word. Secondly it’s showing it genuinely cares about passenger experience consistency across its fleet. That brings us to the topic of today’s post, ITA Airways is retiring its A330-200 fleet. Here’s when, how and why this is happening.

The End of ITA Airways’ Last Alitalia-Inherited Widebody

So back in 2021 when ITA Airways launched its operations the airline made a choice. It decided to operate a one manufacturer fleet, siding with Airbus and not Boeing.

That meant it immediately got rid of the Boeing 777s Alitalia used to own. It couldn’t, however, have a clean start as getting new planes was going to take some time. Therefore it necessarily had to inherit the other long-haul capable aircraft Alitalia used to operate, the A330-200s.

ITA knew these planes were only a temporary solution to fill a fleet void. It therefore chose not to invest in cabin upgrades or retrofitting. It kept these ex-Alitalia A330-200s in the exact configuration and cabin interiors the aircraft were delivered in.

That has been the case up until now. ITA Airways is following through on its promise, made earlier in 2025, to retire the A330-200 fleet by the end of the year.

An Outdated Cabin Experience at Modern Long-Haul Prices

The decision was made long ago and the airline had been only waiting to get its hands on enough wide body planes to avoid any disruption whatsoever to its operations. Deliveries of the A330-900, which is the aircraft replacing the older A330s, moved slower than expected. However, recent deliveries have allowed ITA Airways to confirm that its plan is still on track.

The sooner ITA Airways can get these planes out of its fleet the better for its image and the onboard passenger experience. It is a situation the airline has brought onto itself, deciding not to invest in these planes. I certain that they were hoping to phase them out much earlier than now.

Having these planes still flying is problem for ITA Airways. There is an abyss in hard product quality between the A330-200s and the new generation A350s and A330-900s. This is somewhat annoying for passengers that pay the same price as those flying the newer planes but end up having to put up with a not as nice cabin product.

How Many A330-200s ITA Airways Still Had in Service

Originally ITA Airways had inherited a total of 8 Airbus A330-200 from the former Italian national carrier Alitalia. Gradually they have been phased out over the past year and a half.

Going back to October 2025 ITA Airways still had 4 of these planes in its fleet. However, it stored 2 in October and another in November 2025. That left a single A330-200, registered EI-EJH, still operating regularly scheduled flights.

That last A330-200, a 15-year-old airframe, only has a few days of duty left with its current owner. As reported by aeroroutes.com the aircraft will be exiting ITA Airways’ fleet on January 1st, when it makes its last transatlantic crossing from Boston Logan (BOS) to Rome Fiumicino (FCO).

The aircraft’s last 3 duties will be:

*Returning January 1st to Rome Fiumicino.

A Quiet but Necessary Fleet Cleanup

No big announcement made by the airline to announce what is a major fleet change for them and passengers alike. It is, however, a significant milestone in ITA Airways’ evolution one that moves the airline in the right direction.

Passengers will experience greater cabin product consistency than ever before. There will be less hard product related complaints and ITA Airways lets go of the final piece of the Alitalia legacy in its wide body operations.