Agreement extended for another year: until October 2026 you book easyJet, but you may find yourself on ITA planes
It will last for two more 'IATA seasons' the wet leasing agreement under which ITA Airways since last March 30 has been [...]
ITA Airways
easyJet
LIN
It will last for two more 'IATA seasons' the wet leasing agreement under which ITA Airways since last March 30 has been 'lending' some of its aircraft to easyJet, which opened its fourth base in Italy at Milan's Linate airport.
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Which means, concluded the current Summer, also during Winter 2025-2026 and Summer 2026 it may happen that you book an easyJet flight and, once you arrive at the gate, you actually board an ITA Airways plane, flown by ITA pilots and staffed by ITA personnel in the passenger cabin.
The number of aircraft given to easyJet under wet lease. by Italy's leading airline, However, it will be reduced: now there are three, but as early as Winter 2025-2026 (starting next October 26) there will be two, because the British low-cost carrier will base one of its third aircraft in easyJet livery (of the five it operates from the Linate base) at Linate.
It is not known at this time how many aircraft ITA will 'lend' to easyJet during Summer 2026, but by the end of October that year, all five aircraft based at Linate by the low-cost carrier will be in white-orange livery and operated by easyJet staff. The agreement is the result of 'remedies' imposed by the European Competition Authority following Lufthansa's entry into ITA's capital, officially sanctioned last February.
The model followed is the same one that competition authorities had devised in the case of the merger between Asiana and Korean, when the latter had had to surrender to T'Way Air some of its Airbus A330-200s (with their crews) so that the Korean low-cost company could start long-haul flights to Europe and Australia thus 'breaking' what on the part of Asian/Korean would otherwise have been a monopoly.
The one in Milan Linate is the fifth base opened in our country by easyJet, after those in Milan Malpensa, Naples, Rome Fiumicino and Venice. In recent weeks, however, the British low-cost carrier decided to close the Venice base, remaining with four operating bases in Italy. From Milan Linate, the routes operated are all to foreign destinations, of which as many as 17 opened in the current Summer.
There are a total of 38 aircraft based by easyJet in Italy: 22 at Malpensa, 8 at Naples, 5 at Linate and 3 at Rome Fiumicino.
