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THE REAL REASON AIR ITALY WON’T RECEIVE 787
MATTHEW MAY 10, 2019
Air Italy has revealed it will not receive any Boeing 787s but instead maintain a longhaul fleet of exclusively Airbus A330 aircraft.
In an interview with Aviation Analyst, Air Italy’s COO Rossen Dimitrov shared his rationale.
Because of the delay in Boeing 787 Dreamliner deliveries, we have decided to expand the fleet with Airbus A330s instead. We will add more A330s this year, and next year too.
We want to lease the next A330 jets from Qatar as we would like to maintain the consistency in our product. We don’t want to create confusion in our product, and this aircraft is proving to be perfect for us. We’ll stick with the same cabins, and continue to roll-out our service and cabin upgrades, etc. We’re too small to have a mixed (Airbus and Boeing) fleet, we realised it would be too costly.
Like One Mile at a Time, my understanding was that Air Italy was not a planned recipient of Qatar Airway’s latest 787 order, but would be the recipient of older 787-8s.
But with Air Italy struggling and Qatar Airways taking on more routes (including even a couple wet lease flights for Air Canada this summer due to the ongoing Boeing 737 MAX issue), it is no surprise that Air Italy will stick to its A330 fleet, offering a more consistent product. The business class seat may be angled and not truly lie-flat, but you won’t have to guess what seat you will receive when you fly on Air Italy. More importantly, having only one aircraft type to maintain and staff will inevitably prove more efficient.
Air Italy Defends Qatar Airways
In the same interview, Dimitrov pointed out Air Italy’s cancelled flights plans as proof that it was operating as a business to make money, not lose money.
The accusations are ridiculous; this is nothing but a personal attack on Qatar, and it’s in line with their agenda against Qatar. Air Italy is an independent airline, it’s compliant with all European Union regulation and ownership. Qatar Airways is the minority stakeholder (49%), for them, it’s a pure investment. They do not manage the airline; they do not dictate what we must do. We make our own decisions. If we had bottomless pockets as the US carriers claim, and didn’t care about our budgets because the State of Qatar was funding us — tell me why we did we pull out of India?
It’s more than just India. Bangkok failed. Chicago failed before it even started. Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Toronto have become seasonal routes. Air Italy’s ambitious growth plans have not exactly gone according to plan. Dimitrov is certainly correct that his carrier’s actions suggest its pockets are not bottomless.
CONCLUSION
From a consumer standpoint, the cancellation of 787 plans is disappointing because it would have offered a better business class seat onboard and and a better consumer experience overall. But from a business standpoint, the move makes sense. Hopefully Air Italy has learned the lesson from others that it must growly slowly if it is to sustainably grow.
https://liveandletsfly.boardingarea.com ... 787-plans/
Air Italy Backtracks On 787 Plans
MAY 10, 2019 BY BEN (LUCKY) 8
Air Italy is the controversial Italian airline that Qatar Airways has a 49% stake in. The airline used to be known as Meridiana, but with funding from Qatar Airways the airline has launched new routes and updated their onboard product.
The airline has expanded significantly, though has also cut several routes within weeks of launching.
Air Italy A330
Since the airline is backed by Qatar Airways, their plan has long been to primarily lease planes from Qatar Airways. That’s a win-win since Qatar Airways has excess capacity due to the Gulf blockade (they’re even leasing planes to Air Canada this summer), and that’s cheaper than Air Italy acquiring planes otherwise.
When Air Italy started they had five Airbus A330s from Qatar Airways, but they’ve long said that their plan is to eventually operate a fleet of 30 Boeing 787s, which just gives you a sense of how much they were hoping to grow.
I’ve been skeptical about whether or not they’d actually ever get 787s, especially since the initial plans called for the airline to have their first 787s by May 2019 (this month). Well, now we know the answer.
Aviation Analyst reports that Air Italy no longer plans to add any 787s to their fleet, but rather plans to maintain an all A330 fleet for their long haul flights.
The reasoning provided is interesting. According to Air Italy’s COO:
“Because of the delay in Boeing 787 Dreamliner deliveries, we have decided to expand the fleet with Airbus A330s instead. We will add more A330s this year, and next year too.
We want to lease the next A330 jets from Qatar as we would like to maintain the consistency in our product. We don’t want to create confusion in our product, and this aircraft is proving to be perfect for us. We’ll stick with the same cabins, and continue to roll-out our service and cabin upgrades, etc. We’re too small to have a mixed (Airbus and Boeing) fleet, we realised it would be too costly.”
The claim here is that Qatar Airways has 30 Boeing 787-9s on order, and the delivery of those is delayed. While that’s true, it’s my understanding that Air Italy was largely going to take over Qatar Airways’ existing 787-8s.
Reading between the lines, it sure seems obvious to me why Air Italy isn’t taking over any 787s from Qatar Airways — they’re costly and the business model hasn’t quite panned out the way they hoped:
Air Italy pulled out of Bangkok, Delhi, and Mumbai within weeks of launching flightsAir Italy canceled Chicago flights before they even launchedAir Italy’s flights to Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Toronto, are all seasonal (the airline didn’t reveal this when they actually announced the flights, but only in the past few weeks)The airline plans to operate “counter-seasonal” flights, meaning in winter they’ll operate leisure long haul flights heading east from Milan, which is going to be challenging to do without much of a connecting network
Bottom line
I wish I were surprised, but I’ve been assuming for quite a while that Air Italy won’t actually take over any Qatar Airways 787s. Personally I think that’s a smart move. An A330 seems like a much more reasonable plane with which to try and grow.
While I question Air Italy’s business model, I continue to point out that they have an exceptional onboard soft product in business class, and highly recommend flying them.
https://onemileatatime.com/air-italy-787/
