With the A330/900neo "Marco Tardelli" there are 49 ITA aircraft dedicated to the great Italian sportsman
The blue, or rather Savoy blue, livery of ITA Airways' planes is borrowed from national team jerseys, and the planes are named after sports champions
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The latest arrival is 'Marco Tardelli'. He landed at Rome's Fiumicino airport on June 23, just under a month after 'Gelindo Bordin'.
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The celebrated Juventus and national soccer team champion (scorer of one of the three goals in the Spain '82 final) and the marathon runner who won a gold medal at the Seoul '88 Olympics were the first two Italian sportsmen to whom ITA Airways dedicated the brand-new Airbus A330-900 flagship aircraft. Two more A330neo are expected to join the fleet by August, but every 'effort' to extort from the airline the names they will bear on the front of the fuselage has been in vain. ITA cares enormously about the initiative with which it honors the 'greats' of blue sports, to the point of concealing their names until the plane is on delivery.
The first four champions had been chosen in late 2021 by the company, which had dedicated as many A320s to Paolo Rossi and Fausto Coppi and as many A319s to Pietro Mennea and Gino Bartali. The honor of the name on the first plane to enter the fleet with the blue livery had fallen to 'Pablito,' on Dec. 24, 2021. In late January 2022, the marketing coup: holding a contest by which the company's social media followers would be to choose the names of blue heroes to be written on planes. In March 2022, as we at TheFlightClub, the Airline had chosen 22 names of champions and champions.
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Since then, of course, that number has grown, always following the survey directions. E at the end of June 2023 there are 49 'named' aircraft, out of an ITA Airways fleet of 70 aircraft. The only model that to date has not been dedicated to any sportsman or sportswoman is the Airbus A220, whose 4 specimens are in white livery with 'Born to be sustainable' inscription.
Of the 18 Airbus A319s in the fleet, only half are 'christened', due to the fact that with the arrival of A320neo and additional A220s, it is A319s that will be the first to be retired (some are even still in Alitalia's old livery). However, the nine champions and champions whose names are prominently displayed on the baby-Airbuses are: Gino Bartali, Massimo Biasion, Marco Simoncelli, Pietro Mennea, Adriano Panatta, Michele Scarponi, Alberto Ascari, Michele Alboreto and Novella Calligaris.
Turning to the A320s, 27 out of 32 airplanes have already been named to Sandro Munari, Giuseppe Saronni, Francesca Schiavone, Gigi Riva, Felice Gimondi, Eleonora Lo Bianco, Gaetano Scirea, Giuseppe and Carmine Abbagnale, Paolo Rossi, Tania Cagnotto, Nicola Pietrangeli, Carlo Pedersoli, Andrea Lucchetta, Fausto Coppi, Deborah Compagnoni, Flavia Pennetta, Federica Pellegrini, Gianni Bugno, Gustav Thoeni, Giacomo Agostini, Dino Meneghin, Sara Simeoni, Karolina Kostner, Giacinto Facchetti, Francesco Moser, Klaus Dibiasi, and Domenico Fioravanti.
We jump from short to long haul with A330/200s, of the two neo we have already mentioned, while of the eight ceo (-200 series) in the fleet, six are 'christened' with the names of Polo Maldini, Marco Pantani, Francesca Piccinini, Juri Chechi, Francesco Totti and Tazio Nuvolari.
Of the six Airbus A350-900s, finally, one is white with the words 'Born to be sustainable' (same livery as A220), while the five blue ones were named after Valentino Rossi, Marcello Lippi, Roberto Baggio, Alessandro Del Piero and Enzo Bearzot.
'To be continued' -- one would say in the movies.
