ITA Airways to launch Rome-Dubai flights

Italian carrier ITA Airways is to launch a new route between Rome Fiumicino airport and Dubai as part of next winter’s schedule.

ITA Airways, which is planning a major expansion of its long-haul services, will start the Rome-Dubai route on 27 October with flights operating daily.

The carrier said it will use a narrow-body Airbus A321neo aircraft on the new route, which will be fitted with three cabins: business (12 seats), premium economy (12 seats) and economy (141 seats).

Antonino Turicchi, president of ITA Airways, described the introduction of Dubai flights as a “further step forward in our company’s growth”.

The announcement of the Rome-Dubai route came as ITA launched new flights from Rome to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia on Sunday (2 June). This will be followed by more new routes to the Middle East with the introduction of flights from Rome to Kuwait City in July and Jeddah in August.

ITA has also just launched two new transatlantic routes from Rome Fiumicino to Chicago and Toronto. Meanwhile, the airline is boosting its services to Africa with routes from Rome to Accra in Ghana starting on 6 June and to Dakar in Senegal on 3 July.

The Italian government has agreed a deal for Lufthansa Group to buy ITA but this is currently the subject of an investigation by the EU into whether it would reduce competition.

ITA said it carried five million passengers during the first four months of 2024, which was a 29 per cent rise on the same period of 2023. The airline was particularly boosted by its long-haul intercontinental services with revenue up by more than 50 per cent year-on-year.