Ita Airways Connect, the Italian airline’s booking portal, is proving popular and at the start of the 2022-23 winter season Ita Airways has a network of 62 destinations - of which 9 intercontinental (seven from Rome Fiumicino and one from Milan Malpensa) and 26 international (17 from Rome and nine from Milan Linate), -  Emiliana Limosani, ITA’s chief commercial officer, takes stock of the airline’s impact on the market. 

"We are very satisfied with the results of Ita Airways Connect which has reached more than 8,000 subscribers globally. This booking portal, which we recently added to our English-language site, has been very well received by the international community. and is growing. It allows us to guarantee a constant update on all Ita’s news. The archive is easy to consult and is connected to a marketing cloud through which we can develop a personalized rapport with individual subscribers.”

“The portal gives access to a booking engine for purchases by non-Ita agencies and enables access to quotation and group definition tools. We have recently updated the branding of the site, which now sports a stunning Ita Airways look and feel. We plan to complement Ita Airways Connect with more initiatives for the trade, such as those offered in recent months like the dedicated fares for personal travel by agency staff ."

This winter we are focusing strongly on long-haul and have some really important news. From 5 November, the new flight from Rome Fiumicino to Tokyo Haneda will be operative with our flagship Airbus A350 three days weekly. And the new flight from Rome Fiumicino to New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport will take off on 3 December. These new flights will be operated with Airbus A330s, with three weekly frequencies on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.”

“Despite the heavy increase in fuel costs and the difficult first six months due to the Covid Omicron wave, in June we posted improved accounts and a profit.  This result is all the more remarkable as we are a startup and, being our first year, we are laying the foundations for future development, including the completion of the fleet to ensure the growth in capacity necessary to offer the market complete and satisfying travel solutions.”

Dozens, perhaps hundreds of people gathered along the fence that marks the boundary of the airport and has a great view of the runway. It happened a few days ago in Foggia, in the northernmost part of Puglia, gateway to the Gargano and its wonderful coast when, after a good eleven years, the airport reopened to civil flights. These onlookers were not just professional photographers, plane spotters or aircraft enthusiasts. They were ordinary citizens of all ages who were there to witness an event that it is no exaggeration to call historic: the first take-off from the runway that had been unused for too long. 

"Two kilometres of road leads nowhere, two kilometres of runway leads everywhere in the world.” And in that moment we realized it was true. Growing up in a part of the world and at a time when going to the airport is like going to the station to hop on a train, we almost forgot the value, the deep meaning and the opportunities that an airport offers to a region. Even more so when that region is often identified as crude and complex. This new connection with the world is “a total redemption for Foggia and the surrounding area,” says Antonio Maria Vasile, president of Aeroporti di Puglia (the airport's management company, Ed.). 

An area that goes from the green of the Dauni mountains along the region's border with Campania and Molise, to the sunbaked Gargano, star of the last Venice Film Festival with Ti mangio il cuore (I eat your heart) inspired by the novel by Apulian writer Giuliano Foschini. The recovery of the airport, which in Aeroporti di Puglia's intentions will be “self-sustainable energetically and a civil defense base” has already become a best practice, an example for others and not just in Italy. Today the Gino Lisa Airport is connected by Lumiwings to Milan Malpensa. Routes to Turin, Catania and Verona will follow. It’s a start. Tomorrow, who knows? 

Mariella Cattaneo
Journalist

Trenitalia. Best of the pick for tourists. From Europe to North America, and with more than a nod from Asia, summer international bookings  were up 30% on 2019.

Everyone loves trains. Not just foreign visitors, because Italians too are increasingly choosing rail travel for their holidays, and after two and a half pandemic years they are doing it more than ever. Italy has an extensive rail network, and the high-speed trains are its spearhead says Pietro Diamantini, Trenitalia's high-speed business director.

How has the market changed in the last two years and what does the future hold?

“In the post-pandemic era travel has changed a lot. The leisure segment is prevalent within our target clientele and has prompted us to design an increasingly competitive and sustainable form of travel compared to private and other modes of transport. Things have evolved taking on board the demand, and they will continue to evolve into the next tourist season. Our tailor-made travel solutions will favour north-south travel, with more connections, more speed, and more stops in destinations with strong tourist vocations. In recent years, jumping on the bandwagon of this evolution we extended the Frecciarossa connections beyond the Turin-Salerno high-speed axis, and added more trains on the Adriatic and Rome-Venice lines. And this is also true for Calabria, for example with the Frecciarossa night trains. We are doing out utmost to offer solutions that will encourage people to travel for tourism even outside the traditional season."

What are the results of the introduction of high-speed on the Paris-Milan line?

"Both the Italian and French markets have shown a lot of interest right from its launch and, to our great satisfaction, the load factor has often topped 90%. The Frecciarossa travel experience with all the features that are so popular in Italy, has really surprised international customers who were not familiar with our levels of service. We achieved excellent sales results through our direct channels, but also thanks to our travel agent and railway company partners."

How is the concept of intermodality evolving to reach those tourist locations that are not so efficiently served by traditional connections?

"In recent years we have worked a lot in this direction: with Freccialink buses, we are extending the comfort and quality of the high-speed Frecce to wonderful tourist spots like Matera, Perugia, Assisi and also with seasonal services to Madonna di Campiglio, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Val Gardena, Val di Fassa, Sorrento and Pompei. For the coming season we are adding increasingly competitive solutions to encourage people to choose Trenitalia and leave their cars at home. To add to the customer experience we are working with important partners, and we have synergies with ports and airports. In addition, we are boosting the direct Frecciarossa connections between Florence, Naples and the Rome Fiumicino hub. This means offering additional ways to get to Rome’s international airport with Frecciarossa trains, and to continue on to multiple destinations.  Then there are the integrated connections with the shipping companies Snav and Alilauro to ports on the islands in the Gulf of Naples and the Aeolian Islands. And some solutions include the bus services from Naples Centrale station to the Molo Beverello jetty.”

Which foreign markets are you concentrating on?  

“Well, our distribution channels abroad are performing very well this year so we estimate that 2022 may even surpass 2019. Europe is still our main foreign market and it is growing very fast this year, even compared to pre-pandemic levels. The North American market, which remains an important reference point for us, is also recovering fast, and we are starting to get positive signals from South America and Asia, especially South Korea and Japan. Collaboration with our international partners for the recovery and development of these markets is strategic.”

What is happening with regard to the international trade?

"We are offering them all our product and service innovations. From now to the end of the year we will have a series of meetings to further develop business with our international network, and we are in the process of launching interesting innovations aimed at further growth, like new aggregators and GDS platforms. We are present at the main international trade events, also attracting interest from operators in new markets. We can proudly say that the Frecciarossa service model is now known and appreciated in many countries around the world.”

Globally, what is the value of the agency distribution channel?

"Travel agencies are a privileged interface for Trenitalia. They know the customers’ needs inside out and they come up with the best solutions. The distribution channel is fundamental for our global outreach, with the dual aim of increasing sales and consolidating our brand's distribution network. We also believe it is important to keep an eye on how to simplify the purchasing processes, and to offer a customer experience that lives up to expectations, while also taking fully into account the needs of a young and constantly evolving market."

A positive summer 2022. With a boom of foreign tourists beyond pre-pandemic levels

The summer season that has just ended was clearly a positive one: "More than 80 million passengers travelled on our trains," says Pietro Diamantini. On the high-speed Frecce network around 7% of tickets were sold through summer promotions. In addition, the free kids offer led to numbers up to six times higher than in 2019.  Other offers for leisure traffic were also on the rise: you&me, groups and insieme doubled sales in August compared to 2019." There are also "strong signs of recovery" from "international tourism: summer bookings exceeded by 30% the levels of 2019, the year with the best results ever. This is an important market segment and we are keeping a watchful eye on it.”  

Rome and Florence

The most popular art cities in the summer of 2022, with arrivals and departures in line with 2019

+80% Growth for arrivals and departures in Calabria compared to 2019

+20% Increase to Bolzano in the summer of 2022 compared to 2019

Korean Air’s Rome-Seoul returns with three weekly flights, as the Korean airline resumes direct connections between Fiumicino Airport and Seoul. 

Three weekly B777-200 flights

The route is served by a Boeing 777-200 with a new configuration of 36 seats in Business Class and 225 in Economy. Initially, the frequency will be three weekly flights, operated on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Flying to Italy for over 30 years 

"From today we reconnect Rome and Seoul with the Boeing 777-200s, a 5-star service and with excellent safety levels - said Lee Ki Wook, general manager of Korean Air. - Last year was the 30th anniversary of the opening of the Rome flight. I am convinced that the resumption of flights will be an important stimulus for the future."

“Fiumicino is the most popular airport in Europe”

"The intensification of direct connections with Seoul - underlined Ivan Bassato, chief aviation officer of Aeroporti di Roma - reaffirms the importance of the Korean market. Hoping to see a full recovery soon, we are proud that Korean Air has chosen to make Fiumicino Airport part of its reconstructed international network. It is also an indication of our attractiveness, not least for the excellence and quality of the services we offer that make Fiumicino the most popular airport in Europe."

A new user-friendly website

The return to Rome confirms the company's dedication to the European market, especially to Italy, and to the strong commercial and tourist relationship between the two nations. Korean Air’s new website in Italian is now online with a new look and functions that make it more user-friendly and intuitive.

From an ocean crossing on a luxury liner, to the Concorde’s supersonic flights, to the present day, where travel looks to superfast trains and planes with some quite incredible facilities. Yet nothing seems to be enough anymore, and if a limit is made to be surpassed, then the future of travel is ready to leave this planet Earth of ours and explore space.

What might have been a good plot for a movie just a few years ago is now a reality, and the travel industry knows it. So much so that at the next WTM in London (7-9 November 2022), the former president of Virgin Galactic and current chairman of UKspace (the British space industry trade association) Will Whitehorn, will give a keynote address on the potential of space tourism. 

Space: the final frontier of travel? will put the spotlight on a sector worth an estimated $4 billion by 2030. The focus will certainly be the feasibility of this - albeit extremely elitist - type of travel, considering that the travel industry has for decades been committed to reconciling development and environmental sustainability today, more than ever, exacerbated by the climate emergency. 

From Richard Branson to Jeff Bezos via Elon Musk who, with his SpaceX, launched the first space expedition composed entirely of private citizens, we have no shortage of pioneers. But there is a price to pay and it is not only economic, as the environmental impact of a flight into space is enormous. Even the recent Global Space Tourism Market Report 2022: Expansion of Sector Bodes Well for General Space and Technology Research admits it. Of course some space companies do not use black carbon but liquid hydrogen fuels. Other research indicates that the carbon dioxide emissions of a space flight carrying four passengers are 50 to 100 times greater than the estimated two tonnes per passenger of a traditional long-haul flight. Are we ready to run the risk? 

Mariella Cattaneo
Journalist

Cathay Pacific is to operate weekly flights between Milan Malpensa and Hong Kong from 8 October 2022.

For the coming months of October and November the weekly direct flight will depart Milan on Saturdays and arrive in Italy on Fridays.

“Milan is an important business and leisure stopover” 

"The gradual easing of restrictions on entry to Hong Kong is spurring the resumption of Cathay Pacific's operations to Europe and the return to Milan Malpensa, an important stopover for business and leisure customers, is an important new milestone towards the full resumption of operations," says Maggie Wong, area manager - Southern Europe at Cathay Pacific.

Validity of cancellation penalties extended to 31 December

Flights to Italy will be operated with the new Airbus A350-1000, configured with three classes of service and a total of 334 seats (46 in Business Class, 32 in Premium Economy and 256 in Economy). The validity of Vola senza pensieri, the cancellation of penalties on booking and itinerary changes, has been extended to 31 December 2022. This allows passengers to change their travel dates and final destination at no extra cost until this date, and to fly by 31 December 2023.

Icelandair’s three Reykjavik-Rome flights may also operate this winter.

The direct twice-weekly flights, operated for the first time this year from Rome Fiumicino to Reykjavik-Keflavik, took off in July and will run until the end of October. 

High load factors

The initial load factor of 94% rose to 96% in August and in view of this success the company has already decided to bring forward the start of operations for next year to 14 May. It will also increase the number of weekly flights to three (Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays). 

Excellent North American connections

The aircraft chosen by Icelandair for this operation is the new Boeing B737 Max in the -800 and -900 versions, and all flights have immediate onward connections to North America (New York, Boston, Washington, Chicago and Seattle).

Flights all winter? 

Still under consideration by Icelandair (represented in Italy by Discover the World) is the possibility of maintaining the flights during the winter season. This would allow Italian customers to experience the charm of Iceland under the snow, with the great icefalls and the wonder of the northern lights.

Ryanair will expand its Venice network with 20 new routes, placing a fourth aircraft in the lagoon city for the winter of 2022/23.

The further development worth US$100 million brings the total investment of the low cost airline at Marco Polo  Airport to $400 million, and a total investment of $600 million in the region thanks to the two aircraft based at Treviso airport.

330 weekly flights to 27 destinations this winter

Ryanair's Venice winter operation includes 330 weekly flights to 27 destinations, including 20 new routes: Stockholm, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Cologne, Copenhagen, Cork, Dublin, Fuerteventura, Gdansk (operational as of this summer), Helsinki, Katowice, Lanzarote, Lisbon, Madrid, Marseille, Nuremberg, Santander, Toulouse, Zaragoza and Vienna.

“This winter we will operate at more than 470% of our pre-Covid capacity on Venice”

"Although other carriers have reduced their pre-Covid capacity by almost 50%, the Save Group (Venice airport management company) has acted quickly and decisively to the advantage of the Veneto region, ensuring long-term growth by Ryanair - said Ray Kelliher, low-cost route development director -. This winter we will operate at more than 470% of our pre-Covid capacity on Venice. Ryanair's huge summer and winter operations in Venice will give inbound tourism a much-needed boost, restore vital connectivity and secure jobs in the wider tourism sector.”

Large cruise ships have returned to Venice thanks to launchers that circumvent the docking ban.

These nifty craft, carrying 150 passengers each, recently transported some 1,500 passengers into Venice from the Norwegian Gem stationed just outside the Lido. The system, agreed with the Venezia Terminal Passeggeri company and the harbour master's office thus made it possible to bypass the ban that from August 2021 has prevented ships over 25,000 tons from sailing into Venice via San Marco and the Giudecca.

A smart solution used for Greek islands

This is not a new solution as it is frequently used on Greek islands lacking ports of call capable of accommodating large vessels such as the 94-thousand ton Gem. The Norwegian line ship did not, however, technically call at Venice, as it did not require refuelling or other port services during its stay in the natural harbour outside the Lido.

Another headache for Venice’s municipality

However this solution provoked discussions with the port authority and with Venice’s municipality which did not take to it kindly. Councillor for tourism Simone Venturini told the Corriere del Veneto newspaper that this is not the ideal cruise ship model for the city. In fact, the municipality has been striving for some time to avoid hit-and-run cruise tourism, as evidenced by the recent decision to introduce an entry fee into Venice that will come into effect next year.