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The “new Alitalia”, which decided without further ado to appear as “ITA Airways”, has been in the air since Friday. On Saturday, the carrier carried out the official maiden flight on the Rome FCO-Luqa route. This occasion was used for a “test flight”.
Ita's homepage not only looks very provisional at first glance, but also booking flight tickets turned out to be quite complicated until the end. With some browsers, the booking mask could not be selected at all or the process ended in a hodgepodge of error messages.
Ticket booking and web check-in can be challenging
Once you have finally managed to buy a ticket, the next negative surprise bloomed when you checked in on the web. This does not work in some browsers and in terms of language it was also a mixture of Italian and English. What is required is that you provide various data for a kind of “self-declaration” under the guise of “Corona”. The form was so bugged that it didn't spit out a boarding pass until the fifth attempt.
In contrast to the industry standard, it is a simple PDF. The advertised mobile boarding pass was not delivered. Although this is mentioned in the e-mail, it simply does not exist. Incidentally, during the web check-in, the flight was shown as “operated by Alitalia”. Their trademarks can be found on the boarding card with the ITA logo. All other documents always refer to “operated by ITA”.
The rights to the Alitalia brand were secured for around 90 million euros. This is also used temporarily to buy more time for repainting aircraft and for purchasing new uniforms. Then you want to appear in a blue livery as ITA Airways. Right now it's a mix of everything. According to official information, the Alitalia brand was only bought so that no competitor could use it.
There is no free choice of seats in the cheapest economy tariff. The seat is allocated and can only be changed for a fee. On the test flight, this made ten euros. Remarkably, each seat costs the same, ie this price was also charged in the first row and in the exit row. The purchase was not possible, however, because the entry of the credit card details did not occur, because the online check-in system said goodbye in a chain of error messages.
Ex-Alitalia lounges still closed
They currently do not have their own lounges. Alitalia has long since closed. Business passengers are referred to the partner lounges. In Rome-FCO only two are currently open in area E. It is normally used for non-Schengen flights, but has been used for Schengen for a few months now. By the way, those in area A are still not in use and the signs have been masked off. Fun fact: The Premium Plaza Lounge allows you to order hot meals using your smartphone. To do this, the QR code at the table has to be scanned and an order menu opens, which is quite extensive. The comparatively large portions are then served by the staff.
In general, there is still a lot to learn in Rome, because staff in uniform or safety vests with Alitalia can be found everywhere, but you have not yet fully internalized the fact that you are now flying as an ITA. How about if the Alitalia logo can still be seen everywhere - even on the aircraft? Almost funny: the words ITA can be seen on the screens, but Alitalia can be heard from the speakers. This can be quite confusing for passengers who fly little and are unfamiliar with the subject.
Copy-and-paste safety cards and a rocky cabin
The first flight was carried out with the EI-DTO. This machine was taken over by Alitalia, which is also quite obvious. The design and logos of the predecessor are omnipresent. The crew also wore Alitalia uniforms. The safety cards have already been exchanged, but they were not particularly thorough, because some of the seat pockets contained both those with the Alitalia logo and with “ITA spa”.
Unsurprisingly, the security cards have been copied, because the date of issue and even the material number are identical. The only difference is the logo. In the slideshow, those from Alitalia and those from ITA are placed side by side. There is absolutely nothing else on board that indicates the new operator. The staff regularly mix ITA and Alitalia in the announcements. No wonder, because the well-known Alitalia logo can even be seen on the napkins.
The cabin was in a pitiful condition, which was more reminiscent of windy charter airlines from vacation countries than of Italy's state carrier, which wants to fly with premium standards. The seats were not only sat out, but the synthetic leather had clearly visible cracks in some rows. Since Alitalia was too stingy for screens in the seats at the time, only covers are available. Some of these are about to fall out. The same applies to the covers of the overhead panels. Such an unpleasantness was packed into the slideshow as an exemplary pattern.
The cleanliness of the machine was “borderline”. One shouldn't speak of “dirty” in the area of the seats, but the machine was definitely not cleaned with special effort. In the seat pockets, leftovers from previous passengers, window panes that are badly scratched on the outside and smeared on the inside, and biscuit crumbs on the seats and on the floor. A US passenger had pulled from the “Joker” and her seat was full of crumbs and rubbish. She insisted that the crew clean it, but they only took the rubbish with them and handed the lady a roll of toilet paper. You can clean it yourself or sit down somewhere else. The arrogance of the crew persisted throughout the flight.
No disinfectant wipes, dirty toilet
In times of Corona, almost impossible to think of, but true: the real horror was evident in one of the two rear toilets. The ventilation was very dusty, the toilet bowl dirty and the area of the sink was like a battlefield of disgust. At least the other quiet places were clean. Complaints from the passengers were shaken off with Italian composure according to the motto “none of my business”.
No disinfectant wipes were given out at boarding. When asked by passengers, a steward stated that they didn't have any. This machine would have had the wipes bitterly necessary even without Corona. The cabin is emblematic of Alitalia: Rocked out and nobody really cared about it. And now the EI-DTO ended up at ITA in this state, which is not worthy of a state carrier, and they obviously did not even pick up a vacuum cleaner.
ITA Airways also serves free catering on board the short-haul flights in economy class. This is not very extensive and consists of a small bottle of water and a packet of biscuits. Alternatively, you can have tea or coffee, but the majority of passengers opted for the packaged water bottle given the marginal cleanliness of the cabin.
The capacity utilization of the first flight from Rome to Luqa was emblematic of the hurdles described at the beginning when buying tickets. There were only about 20 passengers on board, which is not exactly great for the Airbus A320 aircraft. Weird detail: There were no business passengers at all, but the crew still pulled the class dividers.
ITA continues like Alitalia left off
It is also worth mentioning that the Rome-FCO Airport is clearly finding it difficult to adapt the signage so that travelers can also find the desired location in the terminal. Areas that are actually used for non-Schengen flights are currently used temporarily for Schengen flights. However, that does not mean that where “WC” is signposted, for example, there is actually one or that the lounge mentioned does exist. Many other locations also end in front of closed doors or in nowhere. The FCO should urgently improve this, because it is confusing.
Unsurprisingly, ITA Airways turns out to be a one-to-one copy of Alitalia. The EI-DTO didn't even have an “operated by ITA” sticker. The copied safety cards are symbolic of the current status of the new state carrier. This continues just as Alitalia left off. For passengers, it is not very helpful that you are visually confronted with Alitalia and occasionally hear the word ITA briefly. The condition of the cabin was unworthy of a state carrier with premium claims and especially in times of Corona it should at least be clean. Even that wasn't the case.
trail (for them it's free to use)