ITA Airways will also fly to San Francisco and Washington next summer

Interesting interview of ITA Airways CEO Fabio Lazzerini, issued to the magazine the Travel Agency. Many aspects touched on in the chat from load factor on intercontinental routes, to territorial continuity. From chaos at airports, to the carrier's plans while waiting to know who will be the new owner of the national airline.

Japan and India

Between November and December, ITA Airways will take off to three new intercontinental destinations. On November 5, it is the turn of the debut towards Tokyo, also in light of the confirmation of the Japan's borders reopened. Then, in December, it will be the turn of theIndia with direct Rome/New Delhi connection which will take off on December 3. These two routes will also be included in the summer schedule, so connections will be guaranteed all year round.

New routes to North and South America

The most interesting announcement is the expansion of the network to two more destinations in North America: San Francisco and Washington DC. The former was a route also planned by Alitalia but never took off in summer 2020 due to pandemic, while the flight to the U.S. capital is a return for the tricolor carrier.

Departure is planned with the start of the summer season, but tickets are likely to go on sale as early as the next few weeks. Lazzerini also speculated on the opening of a third route to South America (ITA flies to Buenos Aires today and São Paulo). without specifying whether it will be a second destination in Brazil (Rio de Janeiro) or a route to a new nation. Everything, however, will be contingent on the Deliveries by Airbus of the ordered aircraft, particularly the A330/900neo, aircraft intended to take over and slowly retire the current A330/200 ex-Alitalia aircraft still in the fleet.

Euro weak so many American tourists

The weak Euro has two sides. Italian and European tourists heading to the U.S. have a weaker currency; in contrast, U.S. tourists can come to Europe, and thus to Italy, spending less. This is translating into a strong fill rate of flights to/from the U.S., even in September/October, usually more difficult months for ITA.

In conclusion

Against a dramatically different backdrop to that of October 2021, when ITA Airways' first flight took off, management continues this difficult start-up and growth phase in keeping with the business plan. Of course, one must not forget the war in Ukraine, chaos at airports, and rising costs. In all of this, however, in my opinion, what the company has managed to do to date is something remarkable. New planes, new liveries, more destinations than expected. Now we just wait for the sale to close soon.

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