New intercontinental route for ITA Airways, from December direct flight to India

As the negotiation for the sale of ITA Airways proceeds. on the line dictated by the Italian government, new route development activity is not stopped. Waiting to see when it will take off the first plane to Tokyo, Japan's borders continue to be almost completely closed, the Fiumicino-based carrier has put the Rome-New Delhi route up for sale, without any particular announcement.

The route

This is not a first; Alitalia had also started connecting Italy and India in 2017.

Flight AZ770 will be operated, starting December 3, three times a week. With departure from Rome Fiumicino at 2:10 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. With return flight departing from New Delhi at 3:50 a.m. every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.

Interesting selling price with business class tickets just above the premium economy price. Premium Economy present because the route will be operated, at least in the first phase, with old A330/200 ex-Alitalia and pending delivery of the new, higher-performance A330/900neo.

This new route, the ninth intercontinental, will anticipate the other new route planned in the winter schedule by a few weeks, That is, the connection to Male, the capital of the Maldives., flight that will debut on Christmas Eve.

Why India

The Maldives is a route designed primarily for holiday travel Italians, and non-Italians, during the peak demand period. While as far as India is concerned, Italy has a very large presence of immigrants from the world's second most populous nation with more than 1.3 billion people.

Today, to fly from Italy to India, one has to make an intermediate stopover, as Air India has not yet restored connections with our country post covid.

The route is currently on sale until the end of the winter schedule, March 2023. Probably, depending on the market response, ITA will decide whether to extend it in the summer schedule as well or not.

• New Routes