Rome – Italian footballers are involuntarily boycotting the World Cup in Qatar, but “Forza Azzurri!” There’s no reason to shout. to call. This is because of the new ITA Airways and its blue color scheme. The specific paint is particularly well suited for the ITA prior to the Airbus A350-900.
The malicious tongue-in-cheek claim that the best thing about the end of Alitalia is the livery of its successor airline, ITA Airways. And it’s not completely wrong. At least the new airline’s blue-blue airliner in Euro-white uniforms offers a welcome dash of color.
Until now, however, these touches have been confined to European airports, as the blue livery was only found on a handful of single-aisled jets. That will soon change: the new flagship of the Flying Squadra Azurra was recently presented in Toulouse – certainly in the proper style with a bright blue hull.
The first Airbus A350 for ITA Airways is featured and is scheduled to start operations in June at the Rome hub.
From “White Tail” to “Blue Tail”
The newly established Alitalia successor wants to operate up to twelve A350s on long-distance routes. Airbus is able to deliver the first example so quickly because the aircraft with the serial number MSN 270 was not specially built, but has been on the stack for more than three years.
The A350 was originally intended for Hong Kong Airlines. However, due to severe financial turmoil the Chinese did not accept the wide-body jet and Airbus had to store it in Tarbes-Lourdes, later at Châtreaux. A total of 17 flights and about 23 flight hours are already in the log for the large capacity jet.
So now the MSN 270 will soon fly to ITA – but not with an Italian registration, but with the Irish registration number EI-IFB. The A350 is leased only. The owner is Kuwaiti Leasing Company Alafco.
Buenos Aires, New York and Los Angeles
Incidentally, the jet is named after an Italian football legend: beneath the cockpit of the blue A350 is the name of ex-national coach Marcelo Lippi, who led Italy to the 2006 World Cup title in Germany. According to ITA Airways, its first scheduled flight will be to Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires. New York and Los Angeles are also on the list.
© Flug Review – Patrick Zwerger | Image: Airbus | 03/30/2022 19:47
