The way we are travelling has significantly evolved over the last few years. I’ve covered the topic a number of times. More and more long haul and intercontinental flights are now flown on narrow body planes. This trend has now also entered ITA Airways and its flight operations. After the launch of its brand new Airbus A321neo on some intraeuropean flights the Italian airline is ready to use it on an intercontinental route. Summer of 2024 will see the electric blue A321neo of ITA Airways operate the new route between Rome Fiumicino and Dakar, Senegal.
In this post:
- All About ITA Airways New Rome Dakar flight AZ854
- Why does the plane selection make flight AZ854 special?
All About ITA Airways New Rome Dakar flight AZ854
The new flight from Rome Fiumicino to Dakar is quite an important milestone for the new Italian national carrier. First of all it’s the carrier’s first flight to subsaharan Africa. Furthermore it is quite the special flight even in terms of the aircraft chosen and I’ll go more into detail further on in this post.
The new flight, AZ854, will connect the Italian capital to the capital of Senegal in just about 6 flying hours. A flight that will cater to the needs the expat community in Italy, business travellers and that also hopes to intercept connecting passengers from and to other major European destinations ITA Airways currently serves.
The timing at which AZ854 departs and arrives back in Rome is obviously thought to allow passengers to connect onwards to other ITA flights. This is something that ITA Airways is working much harder on compared with what Alitalia used to do.
As for the schedule of the flight AZ854 from Rome to Dakar will operate as follows:
| Flight Number | Departure Airport | Code | Departure Time | Arrival Airport | Code | Arrival Time | Flight Time | Frequency | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| From July 3rd to October 26th |  | AZ854 | Rome Fiumicino | FCO | 15:30 | Dakar | DKR | 19:30 | 6h 00m | W,F,Sa,Su |
| AZ855 | Dakar | DKR | 23:40 | Rome Fiumicino | FCO | 07:20+1 | 5h 40m | W,F,Sa,Su | |
| Starting October 27th | | AZ854 | Rome Fiumicino | FCO | 15:00 | Dakar | DKR | 20:10 | 6h 00m | W,F,Sa,Su |
| AZ855 | Dakar | DKR | 23:50 | Rome Fiumicino | FCO | 06:25 | 5h 40m | W,F,Sa,Su | |
Tickets have already gone on sale on the Italian carrier’s website although the first flight is scheduled to takeoff on July 3rd 2024. Frequency of the service will be 4 times per week, specifically every:
- Wednesday
- Friday
- Saturday
- Sunday
Why Does The Aircraft Choice Make Flight AZ854 All The More Special?
Although AZ854 is not exactly a short flight, clocking in at 6 hours, ITA Airways will deploy a narrow body on the route. Not just any narrow body, but the most advanced one it owns. The Italian airline will use on flight AZ854 its brand new Airbus A321neo. The plane is the first narrow body the carrier configured and received in a 3 class configuration featuring flat bed seats in Business class. More specifically the ITA Airbus A321neo is setup with:
- 12 Business Class seats in a 1-1 layout
- 12 Premium Economy seats in a 2-2 layout
- 141 Economy Class seats in a 3-3 layout
This cabin configuration makes the ITA A321neo ideal for flights of this length where the airline needs to probe the market for profitability and load factors. If the market feedback is positive I’m sure we’ll see the much larger A330s or A350s on the route.
Flight AZ854 from Rome to Dakar will be the first flight the airline will be using its new A321neo planes beyond the shores of the Mediterranean.
Currently return flights are for sale on promo fares going as low as 470€ per person on an economy light fare.
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