ITA dry of new Airbus A330-900s for a year. But confirms: from January, old -200s away from fleet

It has been exactly one year, that is, since July 2024, that ITA Airways has not received any new A330-900neo from Airbus. The company has 11 of the French manufacturer's latest aircraft in its fleet and is still waiting for five more, for a total fleet that will contain 16 aircraft.

The company's plans were that deliveries of the -900, which began in May 2023, would be completed by the end of 2025, with a profound renewal of the long-haul fleet 8and a decisive upgrade of the in-flight product) that would also have meant The withdrawal from service of A330-200s.

The aircraft, of which there are 5 left in the fleet, were inherited from Alitalia and have a significantly lower on-board product in the three service classes (Business, Premium Economy and Economy) than the -900.

And for the first two-plus years, deliveries went on at a fairly rapid pace, with a new A330-900 delivered to Rome about every two months. Until, that is, July last year, when the EI-HJS brands specimen dedicated to former tennis player Paolo Canè arrived at Fiumicino. Since then, no more.

As it is now the end of July, it seems unlikely that antro the next five months Airbus will 'rain' as many aircraft on Fiumicino, thus completing the deliveries within the terms of the contract with ITA. Not least because the European manufacturer is apparently paying for the difficulties in finding the engines fitted by the 330-900s destined for the Italian carrier, which are the Rolls Royce Trent 7000.

On the Web, in recent days, photos have indeed appeared of as many as two A330-900s in full ITA Airways Savoy blue livery, but without engines. A sign that the planes are there, the thrusters are not. Once the Trent are assembled, the two aircraft will have to make a series of test flights before being delivered to the customer. And thus, the time frame for deliveries is announced to be extended.

Nevertheless, on its website, ITA Airways does not, to date, plan to use the 'old' A330-200s from January 2026, thus remaining confident about the possibility of fulfilling the promise made of their retirement by the end of 2025.

In fact, all network destinations on which the -200 could be used (Boston, New York JFK, Washington, Miami, Toronto, Chicago, Rio De Janeiro, Malé, and Delhi) are assigned to the -900neo. It should also be mentioned that some of these will be 'frozen' during Winter 2025-2026, returning 'online' only in the spring or with the start of Summer 2026: these are Boston and Washington, which will return to being connected to Rome from March 1, 2026, and Chicago and Toronto, which will return 'live' from March 29.

The eleven A330-900s on ITA's force are equipped with three different cabins, with 30 seats in Business Class, 24 in Premium Economy and 237 in Economy, for a total of 291 seats.

Following the tradition of having all of the carrier's planes dedicated to champions and champions of Italian sports, the eleven A330-900s are dedicated to Gelindo Bordin, Marco Tardelli, Lorenzo Bernardi, Gianmarco Pozzecco, Paolo Canè, Luca Pancalli, Vincenzo Montella, Antonio Cairoli, Livio Berruti, Stefano Baldini, and Arrigo Sacchi.