ITA Airways (AZ, Rome Fiumicino) took delivery of its first A321neo at Hamburg Finkenwerder on November 10, following which EI-HXA (msn 11561) was flown to the airline's primary base at Rome Fiumicino.

The A321-200NX(LR) is the first of a batch of nine athe Italian carrier will lease from Air Lease Corporation, all of which have been sourced from ALC's order book with Airbus. They will be delivered through 2025 and will add to ITA's all-Airbus fleet of one A220-100, seven A220-300s, eighteen A319-100s, twenty-six A320-200, thirteen A320-200Ns, eight A330-200s, five A330-900s, and six A350-900s.

ITA said in a press release that the three-class configuration, including 12 lie-flat beds in Business Class, 12 Premium Economy, and 141 Economy Class seats, is ideal for its upcoming routes to the Middle East and Africa, where the state-owned Italian airline hopes to use the longer range of the aircraft to serve thinner markets.

The A321neo(LR) was initially scheduled to make its debut for ITA between Rome Fiumicino and Tel Aviv Ben Gurion by December 1. However, given safety concerns over the Israel-Hamas war, as of now, ITA has not filed any other schedules for the new type. Flights to Israel are due to resume from December 1 albeit using a daily A320-200 which should migrate to a daily A321neo from January 5, 2024. Thereafter, ITA plans to serve the Israeli commercial hub up to 3x daily using the A321neo(LR)s.

Tel Aviv is currently ITA's only destination in the Middle East. In Africa, it serves Algiers, Cairo International, and Tunis according to ch-aviation Commercial Aviation Operator Schedule Data data.