What does Ita Airways do on fares to and from Fiumicino?

Following the recent announcement of the introduction of the surcharge for eco-sustainable fuel that will be applied by almost all airlines that use Saf biofuel starting from 2025, the concern of consumer associations has shifted to the high cost of tickets for carriers operating in Italy and in particular to the national airline Ita Airways which is the largest domestic operator at Rome Fiumicino.

Start Magazine commissioned Cristiano Spazzali, a commercial aviation expert, consultant and former general manager of Azzurraair who has been following the ITA Airways dossier for some time, to conduct research to understand the rates applied by Ita on domestic destinations to and from Rome Fiumicino with return flights on the same day during the week and with the option of returning the following day to monitor the various price differences.

Another parallel investigation was also conducted on the North-South routes operated during the weekends (Saturday-Sunday) to better understand the dynamics of the fare policies applied by the national airline.

Sweep them away, explain to us what criteria were used to conduct this analysis.

On June 30, all domestic destinations for Rome Fiumicino on one day of the week, for example Tuesday or Wednesday, and with return on the same day, were taken into consideration. The same work was then done for the return on the day immediately following departure. The times are between 06:00 and 08:00 in the morning for departure and 17:00 and 22:00 for return. The fare taken into consideration is absolutely the lowest available, non-refundable and without hold baggage.

And what emerges from this investigation?

From this analysis it is clear that Ita is applying a very fragmented pricing policy that apparently does not follow any commercially logical thread. It is a policy that is not balanced and tends to provide greater fare advantages to travellers departing from some cities to the detriment of others. It seems that the intent is to intercept a passenger with a high economic value while leaving out those with a lower economic value. In short, Ita would be depriving itself of a good slice of turnover coming from the middle class that is considered not very interesting and that would require a total revision of the tariffs, and to raise money it mainly focuses on its own regular travellers, making them pay, especially during the summer season, decidedly less advantageous prices. With this policy the risk is of not being able to fill the airplanes and of leaving a good 25% of turnover on the ground.

And does this apply to all cities?

Absolutely not. As I was saying, there are cities that are very advantaged by the rates that Ita applies to its flights, other cities much less. Going from North to South for example, we can see that if we needed to leave with two days notice for example on July 3rd with a return the same day, the lowest return rate is for a Genoa-Rome, at the modest price of almost 615.00 euros, always followed in the north by the cities of Trieste where for a direct flight to Fiumicino the cost is 575.00 euros while leaving from Venice the price drops “slightly” to 531.00 euros. The cities in the North that most enjoy the tariff benefits of Ita Airways flights are Turin and Bologna where a direct flight to Fiumicino costs respectively 217.00 euros and 254.00 euros.

Is anything changing in the Center and the South?

Here too there are strong distinctions between cities. For example, where there is competition, therefore on the Palermo-Rome and Catania-Rome routes where Aeroitalia also operates, for a return flight on the same day, again on July 3, the lowest fare applied by Ita is respectively 158.00 euros and 296.00 euros. If we then leave from Brindisi or Bari, again for Rome Fiumicino on the same date, the lowest fare is 619.00 euros on the Brindisi-Rome route and 514.00 euros on the Bari-Rome route and 444.00 euros on the Reggio-Rome route.

In the following weeks, however, the rates improve.

Of course, but always with some distinctions. If we take a return flight on the same day for example on July 9th, the lowest fare we find for example in Trieste for a flight to Rome Fiumicino is 550.00 euros, and it is the lowest of all those available. The city that instead enjoys the best fare compared to all the other cities is Bologna where a return flight on the same day to Rome in the same period is 135.00 euros. While in the South Vari always suffers with a ticket cost of 414.00 euros while the most advantageous fare in the South is Palermo-Rome with 144.00 euros return on the same day.

During the weekend, however, the rates are very different. What exactly is different?

In this case, all the cities in the North and the Center were taken, so Turin, Genoa, Venice, Trieste, Bologna and Florence and they were connected with a city in the South, stopping at Rome Fiumicino and the destination that has a high traffic index was taken, which is Catania. The weekend, so departure on Saturday and return on Sunday, has times that are between 06.00 and 08.00 in the morning for departure and 15.00 and 18.00 for return. In this case, the rate applied is always the lowest non-refundable and with luggage included that weighs about 70 euros per passenger. There was no shortage of surprises here either. For example, Florentines can rest easy because a weekend in Taormina just for the flight will not cost them less than 480.00 euros unless they decide to leave from Pisa with a low cost and with a direct flight and where the average rate over 3 consecutive weekends is 550.00 euros return. The other cities, on the other hand, are saved, if we may say so, with average fares ranging from 330.00 euros for a Turin-Catania journey, to 400.00 euros for a Venice-Catania journey.

With Lufthansa could something change in the future compared to the rates that Ita applies today?

I really hope so. If you think that today for a Trieste-New York flight operated by Lufthansa the round-trip price is 675.00 euros, almost the same as the lowest cost of the Genoa-Rome flight on July 3, there is a contradiction in terms. If we then delve deeper into the topic, we see that the Rome Fiumicino destination has an average fare in the periods examined, which is very high, we are talking about a domestic flight with an average one-way fare of over 135.00 euros. If we think that for example the Trieste-Rome route on July 3 has the lowest one-way fare which is 287.00 euros with ample availability of seats, it is clear how the fares are not completely aligned. The problem in my opinion is also the airplanes that are used to operate these destinations, at least on the morning flights, larger aircraft would be needed to be able to build a more adequate fare policy. For example, if today I check the availability on the Genoa-Rome flight on July 3, ITA is selling that return flight at the price of 854.00 Euro, while on the Trieste-Rome flight, also on July 3, the return fare has risen to 605.00 Euro.