Painted and retired: where are they and what (ugly) fate will befall ITA Airways' three Airbus A320s
The Instagram account of Cardiff Airport in Wales posted the photo in the past few hours. It is one depicting three Airbus [...]
ITA Airways
Alitalia
SkyTeam
The Instagram account of Cardiff Airport in Wales posted the photo in the past few hours. It is the one depicting Three Airbus A320s in ITA Airways' Savoy Blue livery parked at the former RAF base in St. Athan, in South Wales.
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The three aircraft Have the inscription 'ITA Airways' on the fuselage erased. One has the engines covered and sheltered by orange tarps, the other two have empty engine nacelles, with the thrusters that have been removed.
The three A320s are not there for repairs or a routine maintenance check. But to be 'looted' of valuable and still usable parts (such as, indeed, engines) and then scrapped, as reported by the Cardiff Airport account, which also specifies the brands of the three A320s: EI-DTI, EI-DTH and EI-DTG.
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The latter was the plane with the half-blue and half-white 'I am Friuli Venezia Giulia' livery, while the other two were dedicated to the tennis player Nicola Pietrangeli (EI-DTI) and diver Tania Cagnotto (EI-DTH).
All three are -200 models that ITA had 'inherited' from Alitalia by taking its place in October 2021. the EI-DTG had been delivered to the former flag carrier in July 2009, the EI-DTH and EI-DTI in September 2009.
![ITA crosses the 100-plane milestone. All names of blue champions on fuselages (including 13 new entries) [updated 2025].](https://www.theflightclub.it/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ita-a320-facchetti-900x675.jpeg)
Planes, therefore, anything but old. But which ended up 'in the rubble' as a result of the Ongoing fleet renewal process that ITA has been carrying out for at least three years now and that has already seen the 'exits' from the fleet of nine Airbus A319s, 14 Airbus A320s and three Airbus A330-200s.
The company's updated fleet, which tomorrow, Monday, January 13, could see the installation of the new 'Lufthansa-driven' board of directors, includes a total of 98 airplanes.
Of these, six are A350-900s, eleven are A330-900s, five are A330-200s (two of which are parked and not in use), seven A321neo, nineteen A320-200, nineteen A320neo, ten A319, eleven A220-300 and ten A220-100. Which means that 64 of the 98 aircraft currently in the fleet are new generation, compared with an output of 26 'old' generation aircraft.
