ITA eyes further routes in the Americas as it looks to build share

Italian carrier to start Caracas service in March 2027.
ITA Airways will continue to focus on increasing its long-haul network as it aims to build market share from its Rome Fiumicino base.

The Italian carrier has just announced plans to launch thrice-weekly flights from 30 March 2027 from the Italian capital to Caracas in Venezuela, a route formerly operated by ITA predecessor Alitalia.

It comes after ITA launched flights to Houston George Bush airport in May and ahead of the start of its first flights to Central America with a seasonal service to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic at the end of November.

The long-haul expansion forms a key a part of its strategy since becoming a Lufthansa Group partner carrier, after the latter took a minority stake in ITA at the start of last year.

Speaking during the World Aviation Festival in Lisbon, ITA Airways chief executive Joerg Eberhart explained: “As we have a market share in Rome Fiumicino, which is compared to all the other Lufthansa hubs much smaller, we try to build market share. So we have to build faster than the market at Fiumicino. That means every year two more long-range aircraft being put into our fleet.”

He says North America and South America will be the focus for this expansion.

“[Venezuela] is a very interesting country for us, but there are others in South America – not only where we are already present in Argentina and Brazil – but also, for example, Santiago in Chile is interesting for us, Lima in Peru is of interest,” he says.” We are doing some studies on this, even though we don’t have to decide yet.”

The Italian carrier also boosted frequency in Asia on services to Bangkok and Delhi this year.

“[Asia flights] are still limited because Russian airspace is still blocked, so we have to go around, so there are some competitive downsides,” Eberhart says. “But we are studying some eastern routes to India, and Japan is still in focus.”

He also notes that alongside increasing its long-range operations, the carrier also has to increase its short-haul feed. “There are still a couple of white spots in Europe and Italy – we will start Verona next year in April,” Eberhart says.

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