- The 4 pillars of the Volare Program: freedom, personalization, choice, connection
- Never have so many Italian champions come together to celebrate the union of ITA Airways with Italian sport
- ITA Airways reveals the new names for the aircraft with the blue livery. Great success for the survey of Italians
- What's new for the 2022 summer season: the first Rome Fiumicino-Miami flight departs today, followed by flights to North and South America, and to Japan
- Excellent performance for punctuality and regularity
ROME, March 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, in the new ITA Airways "Piazza di Spagna" Lounge at Terminal E of Rome Fiumicino Airport, Alfredo Altavilla, Executive Chairman of ITA Airways, and Fabio Lazzerini, Chief Executive Officer of ITA Airways, alongside illustrious guests such as Giovanni Malagò, the President of CONI (the Italian National Olympic Committee), Valentina Vezzali, Undersecretary of State to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers with responsibility for Sport, and Vito Cozzoli, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Sport Salute S.p.A., presented to representatives of the Italian and international press the new Volare loyalty program and unveiled the names of the Italian champions to whom the aircraft with the blue livery have been dedicated.
Never have so many Italian champions come together to celebrate the union of ITA Airways with Italian sport: among the guests were champions of Italian sport like Bebe Vio, Gregorio Paltrinieri, Simone Barlaam, Giuseppe Abbagnale, Novella Calligaris, Deborah Compagnoni, Flavia Pennetta, Francesca Schiavone, Adriano Panatta, Filippo Ganna, Andrea Lucchetta, Dino Meneghin, Gustav Thoeni, Elisa Balsamo, Giacomo Agostini; and with them President Giovanni Petrucci, Mrs. Federica Rossi Cappelletti, Nicola Riva – Gigi Riva's son –, the heirs Gioia Bartali and Angelo Fausto Coppi and Giuseppe Pottocar, Director of the Museum dedicated to Tazio Nuvolari.
Kick-off of the Volare program
“Volare” is the new loyalty program that was born on 15 October 2021 along with ITA Airways. It has been designed as an open ecosystem of services and products, made available by ITA Airways and its partners to ensure that customers have a unique, 360 ° travel experience of maximum value.
From today the program is enriched with new features that increase its flexibility and ease of use and offer frequent flyers everything they could desire from a program dedicated to them. Volare is widening its strength based on the four values on which it was developed: 'Freedom', 'Personalization', 'Choice', and 'Connection':
FREEDOM: this consists mainly of maximum flexibility in the accumulation and use of points. Volare is in fact a revenue-based program in which the accumulation of points is linked to overall expenditure rather than to the distance travelled, thereby ensuring that the customer gets a genuine return of value.
The methods of collecting points are clear and advantageous. Each purchase the customer makes accumulates points: from 10 to 23 points per euro spent, with multipliers based on the level of membership, the route, flight class, and the ticket purchased. Moreover, redeeming points has literally no limits. In fact, there are no 'blackout' dates or purchase limits for award tickets: any class, fare and route will be redeemable, on any date. The number of points required for award flights will vary according to the value of the ticket at that time; customers can therefore choose to use their points freely whenever they want to, based on how many points they want to spend. Finally, using the "cash & points" mode, the customer can pay for a ticket entirely using the points they have collected or, if these are not enough, making up the difference with cash.
PERSONALIZATION: Volare is a 'made to measure' program that consists of four exclusive Clubs, on an upward scale of increasing levels of premiumness and dedicated priority services:
- Club Smart: lets the customer accumulate and redeem points with every purchase they make on ITA Airways flights and soon, also on the marketplaces of its partners.
- Club Plus: has an access threshold of 30,000 points, and an accrual multiplier of 10%. This gives extra baggage services, priority benefits on baggage tags, boarding, check-in, transfer desk, and Priority lost and found, as well as a dedicated customer service.
- Club Premium: has an access threshold of 60,000 points and an accrual multiplier of 20%. Its exclusive services include access to the Lounges, Free Fast Track, free assigned seat, extra baggage, and Priority benefits on baggage tags, boarding, check-in, transfer desk, and Priority lost and found, as well as a dedicated customer service.
- Club Executive: with an access threshold of 90,000 points and an accrual multiplier of 30%, it gives access to the Lounges, Free Fast track, free assigned seat, extra baggage, and Priority benefits on baggage tags, boarding, check- in, transfer desk, and Priority lost and found, as well as a dedicated customer service and a Kit that includes a physical card and a welcome gift.
With every purchase on ITA flights, customers can accumulate the points they need to upgrade to the higher Club level and take advantage of various benefits and premium services. Furthermore, beginning from Club Smart, as the access threshold increases, the advantage for the customer also increases in terms of multipliers and the services available.
CHOICE: the third value that the Volare program offers to customers is greater choice. Thanks to the partnership with SkyTeam, all of the Club-related services that are currently available for all ITA Airways flights will soon be extended to the other airlines in the network, enabling members to access more than 1,000 destinations worldwide. Furthermore, as part of ITA Airways' business expansion strategy, the Company is committed to building an ecosystem of partnerships that offer Volare members even more products and services on which they can accrue and redeem points.
CONNECTION: Volare has an innovative, digital, and flexible footprint. It is always online and can be accessed at any time and anywhere via the web platform and the dedicated app.
There are already many subscribers to Volare, both from Italy and abroad. To date, the program has approximately 275,000 members, of which approximately 40,000 are Elite members (i.e. Club Plus, Premium and Executive). This result is also important because it is consolidated on the international market: suffice to say that 35% of the participants in the Status Match campaign came from foreign companies. Furthermore, preliminary analyses show that Volare subscribers buy and fly more than non-subscribed clients, confirming the importance of the program in increasing the satisfaction of our customers.
Aircraft with the blue livery
A few days ago, the "Naming Azzurri" survey concluded, an initiative by ITA Airways that asked to nominate the non-active Italian sports champions whose names could be given to the aircraft with the new livery.
The first aircraft to enter the fleet with the new blue livery was the Airbus A320 dedicated to the champion Paolo Rossi, which has been operational since 24 December 2021. From the beginning of 2022 two A319s entered service, dedicated to Pietro Mennea and Gino Bartali, along with an A320 dedicated to Fausto Coppi.
Those were the four names chosen by the Company. On 24 January 2022, the ‘ball’ was passed to the followers of ITA Airways, who nominated their Italian champions. The survey has proved a resounding success and has confirmed that the move of putting the customer at the center of business, a pillar in ITA Airways’ strategy, is a winning one as it makes them feel like protagonists and, above all, it puts into practice in the service offered to customers, the choices made by those who will receive it. In addition, the survey has confirmed that the national carrier’s flag is a value shared by the world of the web which testified to the spirit and the importance of being Italian and the pride of seeing the Italian sports champions flying on ITA Airways aircraft.
From the numerous nominations received from followers, ITA Airways has chosen the following Italian champions for its 22 aircraft with the new livery:
Giuseppe and Carmine Abbagnale
Giacomo Agostini
Roberto Baggio
Enzo Bearzot
Novella Calligaris
Deborah Compagnoni
Alessandro Del Piero
Marcello Lippi
Andrea Lucchetta
Dino Meneghin
Tazio Nuvolari
Adriano Panatta
Federica Pellegrini
Flavia Pennetta
Gigi Riva
Valentino Rossi
Francesca Schiavone
Sara Simeoni
Marco Simoncelli
Gustav Thoeni
Alberto Tomba
Francesco Totti
What's new for 2022 summer season
In summer 2022 ITA Airways will be operating flights to 64 destinations of which 23 are national, 34 are international, and 7 are intercontinental. It is the intercontinental destinations that are the big new feature for this new season of ITA Airways, which, thanks to its latest-generation Airbus A330s and A350s, will reach the most important destinations in world tourism.
Just today in fact at 11.00, the first, Rome Fiumicino - Miami flight, AZ0630, marked the beginning of our new intercontinental operation. It will land in Miami at 16.40 local time.
The Rome FCO - Miami route will operate 3 times a week on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. The return flight will depart Miami at 19.40 local time.
The first Rome Fiumicino - Boston flight, AZ 614, will depart tomorrow 2 March, and will operate twice weekly every Wednesday and Saturday in the first three weeks of March, to be increased to 3 weekly frequencies starting from the last week of March. Operated by an Airbus A330, it will depart Rome at 10.20, landing in Boston at 14.00 local time. The return Boston - Rome Fiumicino flight will depart at 17.10 local time, landing in Rome at 07.00 local time.
The Rome Fiumicino - Miami and Rome Fiumicino - Boston flights will increase during the summer season and will rise from 3 to 5 weekly frequencies in the months of April and May. From June to September these flights will become daily.
On 2 April the first ITA Airways intercontinental flight will depart from Milan Malpensa to New York JFK. It will operate 5 times a week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. Operated by an Airbus A330, it will depart Milan Malpensa at 12.50, landing in New York at 16.10 local time. The return New York - Milan MXP flight will depart at 20.40 local time, landing at 10.50. The Malpensa - JFK flight joins the Rome FCO - New York JFK that was already operated by ITA Airways in the winter 2021/2022 season.
From June 2022 there will also be departures from Rome Fiumicino to new destinations: Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, and Tokyo. Thus, from 2 June, ITA Airways conquers two of the world's principal markets, the United States and South America, which have always been preferred destinations for Italian holidaymakers and the countries with the largest populations of Italian origin. These two markets are also very important destinations for business and freight traffic. ITA Airways is also conquering the Japan market with a direct flight from Rome FCO to Tokyo Haneda. Operated by A330 aircraft, it will operate 5 times a week beginning from 1 June every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, departing Rome at 15.10 and landing in Tokyo the following day at 10.35. From 2 June the return flight from Tokyo Haneda will operate every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, departing Tokyo at 13.35 and landing in Rome at 19.35. From August these flights will become daily.
The 2022 ITA Airways summer season will also feature the most popular Mediterranean destinations with new flights to the islands of Italy, Spain, Greece and Croatia. In particular, ITA Airways will operate seasonal flights in August from Rome FCO and Milan LIN to Lampedusa, Pantelleria, Corfu, Heraklion, Rhodes, Ibiza, Menorca, and Mallorca.
Also in August, the destinations of Kefalonia, Dubrovnik and Split will be served from Rome FCO, and Thessaloniki from Milan Linate.
All the new ITA Airways flights can be purchased on the ita-airways.com website, from the ITA Airways Call Center, or from travel agencies and airport ticket offices.
Thanks to our codeshare agreements with the major international carriers, ITA Airways is also continuing to grow its commercial strategy via partnerships with other global carriers - giving a privileged access route to the markets of greatest interest for the Company, firstly and foremost in Europe but also in America, Africa, and Saudi Arabia.
With the direct flights from Rome Fiumicino and Milan Linate, these codeshares enable ITA Airways to reach the entire domestic networks of the following airlines via their hubs: Air Malta, Tarom, Air Europa, Bulgaria Air, Tap, Croatia Airlines, Air Serbia, KLM, Luxair, Middle East Airlines, Etihad Airlines, Air France, Delta, Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways, Saudi Arabian Airlines, Czech Airlines, Air Baltic, Pegasus Airlines, and Royal Air Maroc.
In all, 20 codeshare agreements have been signed so far, for a total of 248 destinations served, on which ITA Airways will use its own codes.
The Piazza di Spagna Lounge
Inaugurated in mid-January, the "Piazza di Spagna" Lounge is located in Boarding Area E of Rome Fiumicino airport and extends over an area of about 1,000 square meters with 200 available seats. It includes meeting areas, bookable in advance, and the Kids Lounge, which is dedicated to welcoming our younger guests and allowing them to play. The Lounge offers customers an environment that is elegant and at the same time familiar, thanks to having an Italian approach to hospitality. Customers are welcomed at the entrance by the blue of the new ITA Airways livery, which symbolizes the unity, cohesion, and pride of our country and represents Italian sport and our national team. The catering service is inspired by Italian food and wine excellence, with a bar area where among other things, our customers can sample a selection of fine Italian wines or a typical Italian aperitif prepared by professional bartenders. The offer is in two parts: breakfast and an all-day catering service with an additional hot meal interlude for passengers taking the morning flights to New York, Miami, and Boston. The offer is completed by Wi-Fi connectivity, TV screens with the news of the day, a display for checking flight departure times, and our new digital newsstand service.
This contactless digital reading service was created thanks to our partnership with PressReader, as a very large virtual room where passengers can find newspapers and magazines from all over the world. Offered free of charge, it will enable them to access more than 7,000 titles directly from their device, including newspapers and magazines from 120 countries in more than 60 languages, without any limit. Access is very simple: after completing the web check-in, the passenger directly receives a link to the digital kiosk within the email that delivers the boarding pass. The link is valid for the following 58 hours, and there is also an app that can be used to download the content and read it offline, at any time.
Operational performance
As at 15 February 2022, ITA Airways recorded 96,9% of flights landed on time, and 99,9% of its entire operation was completed in regularity. In January ITA Airways was the top airline in Europe in terms of punctuality and the first in the world in terms of regularity. This was certified by data from FlightStats, an authoritative independent US company that prepares monthly rankings of these indicators for all airlines.
ITA Airways, which started operations on 15 October 2021, was immediately positioned at the top of these punctuality and regularity rankings by providing a service that met with customer satisfaction. These positive results are the result of the professionalism and dedication of all ITA Airways employees, thanks to constantly listening to the opinions of all our customers, who are always at the center of the business.
About ITA Airways
ITA Airways is a company totally owned by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance for the exercise of business in the air transport sector. ITA Airways aims at creating an efficient and innovative air carrier that will become a reference point in providing Italy with quality connectivity both in terms of international destinations, thus boosting tourism and foreign trade, and within the Country, also taking advantage of the train-air integrated mobility. ITA Airways will place the best customer service at the center of its strategy (through a strong digitization of processes that ensure a best-in-class experience and personalized services), combined with sustainability, in its environmental (new green and technologically advanced aircraft, use of sustainable fuels), social (equality and inclusion for a gender-neutral company) and governance (integration of sustainability into internal strategies and processes) aspects. ITA Airways is a member of SkyTeam alliance as of October 2021.
For more information:
LaPresse SpA Communication and Press Office Director
Barbara Sanicola - barbara.sanicola@lapresse.it
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/76179e2d-2792-4d7f-ae96-5a448c04ff5b
The photo is also available at Newscom, www.newscom.com, and via AP PhotoExpress.
