ITA – Italia Trasporto Aereo, the new carrier that will replace Alitalia as of October 15th, announced a strategic partnership with Airbus on Thursday to renew its aircraft fleet in the coming years.
According to the company, Airbus is expected to supply 28 new aircraft through a future contract to be signed, which includes 10 A330neo, 11 A320neo and seven A220 – ITA did not detail which variants will be chosen.
ITA has also signed an agreement with Air Lease Corporation to lease 31 aircraft from Airbus. There will be 15 A220s, two A320neos, nine A321neos and five A330-900neos on long-term lease, which will be delivered from the second half of 2022, according to the lessor – the airline provided another deadline, the end of the first quarter.
The new carrier’s business plan provides for the leasing of 56 aircraft, including 13 A350-900 jets and 43 short and medium haul jets. ITA claims that the agreement was made on more favorable economic bases than those applied to Alitalia.
The new Italian airline also stated that it will reduce the number of lessor companies from 12 to six companies and that they will cooperate so that the fleet will go from 52 aircraft initially to 105 by 2025.
Airbus is committed to being a strategic partner of ITA for new technologies and sustainable next generation projects.
“The strategic partnership with Airbus and ALC is crucial for ITA to jumpstart our Business Plan aiming at achieving our targets of a new-friendly fleet with significantly lower operating and
leasing costs. I want to thank both Christian Scherer, CCO of Airbus, and Steven F. Udvar-Házy, Executive Chairman of Air Lease Corporation, for their trust in the future of our brand-new airline,” said Alfredo Altavilla, CEO of ITA.
