Just a few weeks ago ITA Airways got the green light from the European Commission for Lufthansa to take a 41% stake in the Italian airline. The German carrier will take control of that stake in the closing stages of 2024. Until then ITA Airways will continue to operate and grow its fleet as planned. The carrier has just received its 100th aircraft that will further boost its capacity and operations. Let’s find more about this 100th plane.
ITA Airways 100th Plane is New Wide-Body!
The new aircraft just joined the fleet a week ago. EI-HJS is a brand new Airbus A330neo delivered to the Italian flag carrier on July 12th 2024. The aircraft is an Airbus A330-900, which is the most sold A330neo variant. Interestingly for this plane, ITA Airways returned to using an Irish registration number. Recently the carrier had received some A220s it had registered in Italy.
This latest addition to the ITA Airways fleet didn’t spend much time on the ground at all upon delivery. EI-HJS arrived on July 12th 2024 and was already active on a transatlantic route the very next day. July 13th saw the plane fly down to Rio de Janeiro before returning to Rome and crossing the Ocean once more en-route to Sao Paulo.
The new plane will be primarily used for transatlantic service just as the two mentioned above along with services to the US.
The ITA A330-900neo Configuration
ITA Airways invested a lot of energy and resources in designing from the ground up the interiors of these Airbus A330neo. Much more than it had the chance to do with the A350s. Those planes were not initially intended for the Italian airline and were a last minute opportunity for the new airline to get some long-haul capable planes quickly in its fleet. Therefore, not much could be done in terms of modifying the interiors of the aircraft.
The A330neo interiors are on the other hand entirely designed by ITA and have a strong brand identity consistency in terms of color scheme, look and feel. They are also capable of carrying on a full load:
- 30 Business Class passengers – in a 1-2-1 layout.
- 24 Premium Economy Class passengers – in a 2-3-2 layout.
- 237 Economy Class passengers – in a 2-4-2 layout.
Even business class rows have the window seats closer to the window, therefore assuring greater privacy. Odd rows on the other hand are closer to the aisle.
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