ITA Airways (AZ, Rome Fiumicino) is preparing to launch its first Latin American routes, which will connect Rome Fiumicino with both Buenos Aires Ministro Pistarini and São Paulo Guarulhos this summer, using the first A350-900 widebodies that are due to be delivered to the Italian flag carrier in the coming months.
According to ch-aviation analysis of schedule data, the launch schedule for the routes being reactivated from ITA’s predecessor Alitalia will be 5x weekly to Buenos Aires starting June 2, increasing to daily from August 1, and 4x weekly to São Paulo starting June 1, also increasing to daily from August 1.
ITA Airways’ first A350-900 has emerged from the paintshop and was recently spotted at Airbus’s facilities at Toulouse Blagnac. The aircraft, msn 270, does not yet have an official registration. It was assembled in 2018, originally intended for Hong Kong Airlines (HX, Hong Kong International) but the cash-strapped customer never collected it. Its delivery to ITA Airways is expected between April and June, according to the newspaper Corriere della Sera.
ITA Airways has not yet officially communicated the new intercontinental routes, but they are on sale on the airline’s website.
According to the ch-aviation fleets module, ITA Airways is awaiting delivery of four A350-900s along with ten A330-900N, eleven A320-200N, and seven A220-100s to complement its existing fleet of 59 aircraft. The four A350s are reportedly owned and managed by ALAFCO.
