Air Italy (Milan Malpensa) has taken delivery of its first of twenty B737-8s due from Boeing (BOE, Washington National) following the handing over of EI-GFY (msn 64605) last week.
It is tentatively scheduled to be deployed into regular service on May 16 with flights from Milan Malpensa to each of Naples Capodichino and Palermo International. This will be followed by service to Rome Fiumicino (starts May 19), Olbia (starts June 3), Cairo International (starts July 1), Moscow Domodedovo (starts July 3), and Lamezia Terme (starts August 26).
The aircraft are procured via Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International), which owns 49% of Alisarda, Air Italy's parent company, which has also supplied the carrier with its first of five A330-200s to be delivered this summer.
According to Skyliner Aviation, A7-ACE (msn 571) has now been added to the Irish register as EI-GFX and is currently in Dublin International where it is being repainted into Air Italy's livery. It is recalled, however, that the Airbus widebodies are only a stop gap measure ahead of the delivery of the first B787-8s in May 2019.
