Flight Review: unexpected trip on ITA Airways Airspace A321neo Business Class suite

Flight#: AZ74

From: Rome Fiumicino (FCO)

To: Barcelona (BCN)

Flight time: 1h 30min

Aircraft: Airbus A321neo

To be honest, this is not really a full flight review. It is more of an addendum to my ITA Airways A321neo Premium Economy and Economy class reviews, since this is the third part of the cabin that I had not flown yet on this aircraft.

ITA Airways is one of the few airlines in Europe that is offering a three-class service on narrow-body aircraft with a fully-fitted business class. This may be changing, though. After a few years of carriers stripping the single-aisle fleet of any distinctive premium product, quite a few airlines are bringing back the business class seats. This is in part because of a resurgence in premium travel, but also because single aisle aircraft are increasingly flying longer and longer segments.

For example, the previous time I flew the three-class ITA Airways A321neo was on the relatively long journey between Rome and Dubai. The Italian carrier is deploying this aircraft on routes to Africa and the Middle East out of its Fiumicino base. But, as I was happy to find out, they do fly them within Europe too!

So, you can imagine my surprise when I stepped in the aircraft to find out that my seat was one of this magnificent mini-suites! (in fact, I was not the only one that noticed: I lost count of how many fellow passengers were commenting on the luxurious set up as they were making their way to the back of the cabin!)

I had flown the “regular” short haul business class on ITA Airways, but this was on a whole other level.

The ITA Airways Airspace business class cabin is a truly impressive product, at least when it comes to its hardware aspect.

It is very, very spacious, even more than the business class seat on ITA’s A330-900neo, which I had experienced on the previous flight between Rome and Delhi!

This cabin has a 1-1 configuration and all seats have direct space to the aisle. If it had privacy doors it would be even making strides into First Class territory…

Just note how much space is there on the side, complete with a chaise lounge! And there is also a massive surface on the left side to leave your small personal items (in fact, it even doubles, with yet more storage space and even a mirror).

I have already commented on ITA Airways elegant seat leather padding an elegant colour palette in previous reviews, so won’t spend much time on this. And, yes, there were some small stains on the ground, but, hey, nothing is perfect! (plus this is up to a point inevitable if you have such light surfaces).

The seat is, of course, full lie-flat, which you can see below (extraordinarily for such a short flight, I managef to have a short nap!).

Note that, in this sort of staggered outward-facing layout there is some distance to the window, but I didn’t find there was much of an issue to look outside.

The personal screen is also huge and very responsive to touch, although this was not that much of a surprise, since I had already experienced it on other ITA Airways business class cabins. The experience in this regard is pretty much the same. This flight was a little more of an hour long, so not that much time to use the inflight entertainment much, in any case.

By the way, the seat is fitted with C-type and USB charging outlets.

There is also internet connectivity, although the free service is capped at about half an hour of free messaging, the rest must be paid extra.

Likewise, there is not much to say about the “soft” aspects of the experience. Since this was a short haul flight, there were no blankets, pillows or amenity kits.

We did get a bottle of water, a welcome drink and a nice breakfast, which you can see below.

We were also served coffee in ITA Airways’ signature ceramic cups, although unlike in other preceding flights, the coffee was not espresso-type and was more the “regular” type (perhaps they ran out of stocks or the espresso coffee machine was not working on this particular flight). It was good in any case!

I just wanted to post this last picture to give a sense of the space from the passenger perspective. Huge!

Our Take:

This business class cabin is amazing on its very own, but even more so for a single-aisle aircraft. It was quite an experience to get to try it on such a short flight!