Fly one of the ex-Alitalia Boeing 777s with LOT Polish: it will do Warsaw-New York. The real 'treat' is the cabin
Anyone who has passed through Rome Fiumicino in recent years and, after landing, has taken a look at the western side of the apron [...]
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Those who have passed through Rome Fiumicino in recent years and, after landing, have taken a look at the western side of the apron (the one, to be clear, where AtiTech's hangar stands), will have noticed a number of fully or partially livery aircraft. A large part of that small group is the former Alitalia Boeing 777-200ERs..
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The former national airline had a total of 12 Boeing 777s in its fleet: eleven -200ERs and one -300ER. ITA Airways, when it took over from the historic company in October 2021, was bequeathed many of its jets, both single-aisle and wide-body. But not the 777s.
Almost three years after that handover, five there those 777 result 'stored', parked, at Fiumicino. Two became all-cargo and fly with the Italian airline AlisCargo Airlines. Two are reported to be in charge of the lessor AerCap. Only three have been taken over by passenger companies and continue to do the same 'work' as before.
One of these is the only -300ER that, after a brief takeover by AerCap, was taken over in May 2023 by Turkish Airlines and 'turned over' for leasing to Indigo: today is one of the two 'famous' widebodies of the low-cost mega-company indiana and connects (in Indigo livery) India to Istanbul with a Dense configuration of 531 total seats (7 of Business and 524 of Economy) which replaced the one with 30 seats in Business, 24 in Premium Economy and 328 in Economy adopted by Alitalia.
The other two former Alitalia 777s still in passenger service were purchased by Portuguese carrier EuroAtlantic Airways, which uses them for charter and leasing operations alongside two Boeing 767-300s.
Well, one of these two 777-200ERs returned in recent days to beat the Atlantic routes with scheduled operations and will do so throughout Winter 2024-2025 with Lot Polish Airlines.
The Polish carrier is known to have a long-haul fleet consisting exclusively of Boeing 787-8s and Boeing 787-9s. But this winter its Dreamliners are going to undergo major maintenance checks and that is why from Warsaw they will bring in one of EuroAtlantic's two 777s.
The plane, which is in full livery of the Portuguese carrier, nevertheless retains the Alitalia interior perfectly intact, with 30 seats in Business, 24 in Premium Economy and 239 in Economy. Pure colors and materials have remained the same as Alitalia in all three classes. Only the little logo on the headrest 'napkin' of the seats tells us that we are aboard a EuroAtlantic plane.
Since last September 10 it has been flying five times a week between Warsaw and Toronto (with flight numbers LO45 and LO46) and will do so until October 27. From October 29 (and until March 29, 2025) it will instead end up on the most prestigious of the Polish airline's routes, that to New York JFK, operating six times a week with flight numbers (LO27 and LO26).
For LOT passengers, flying on the ex-Alitalia 777 will be both a leap back in time from the Dreamliners used by the Polish airline and an improvement in on-board comfort, especially for those traveling in the two premium classes.
LOT's 787s, in fact, fly 18 or 24 seats in Business in a 2-2-2 configuration, versus the 1-2-1 former Alitalia and the 21 Premium Economy seats are 2-3-2 like the 24 former Alitalia seats, but with the 777's cabin being about ten inches wider than the 787's. In Economy, LOT flies a 3-3-3 layout typical of Dreamliners, while the former Alitalia is configured 3-4-3.
