Flight Review: ITA Airways business class A330-900neo
Flight#: AZ769
From: Rome Fiumicino (FCO)
To: Delhi (DEL)
(and back)
Flight time: 7h 10min
Aircraft: Airbus A330-900neo
Since I had already had the chance to fly on ITA Airways excellent Premium Economy, I was really keen to try out the Italian carrier’s long-haul business product as well (for ITA’s short haul business class you can check this flight review) and - spoiler! - the experience didn’t disappoint!
In fact, it was two flights, Rome to Delhi and back, and while most of the pictures and comments refer to the first leg of the trip, I have also included some from the return leg in order to give you the full picture (the passenger experience was pretty consistent on both flights, I must say)
Lounges
ITA Airways Piazza di Spagna lounge at Fiumicino
If you are flying out of Rome-Fiumicino to a non-Schengen destination on ITA’s business class, you can use the "Piazza di Spagna" lounge (named after the famous historical and scenic landmark in Rome), located in the “E” boarding gates area.
I covered this lounge (as well as its equivalent ITA Airways lounge for Schengen flights) in my previous ITA Airways review, so, there’s not much to add aside from the fact that this time the pizza area was already open!
The lounge has a main hall with a buffet area at the center and a sort of protruding wing (where more quiet seating can be found).
All alcoholic drinks are served at a staffed bar on one of the sides (water instead can be had directly from the firdges located at the buffet area). And there is also an open kitchen where they make fresh pizza at certain times.
I found the food to be very good overall on both of my visits and a good cross-representation of many different Italian specialities.
The toilets are modern and clean.
Overall I have never found the lounge to be very crowded on the occasions in which I have visited. It was quite enough that I could even have some work calls without needing a separate room.
Encalm Lounge at Delhi airport Terminal 3
ITA Airways business class passengers can use the Encalm Lounge when flying out of Delhi. While this is not part of the ITA Airways core experience (the Italian carrier doesn't have its own lounge in the Indian capital), it was part of the overall experience and I have included it here in the hope it can be of use to those that may be traveling the same itinerary.
The Encalm Lounge is pretty large, with several areas and sections, and pretty busy as well, even at the very early hours of the morning when I visited (my flight was at 3am).
Overall the experience was good. Tasty Indian food and a pretty efficient bar at the center.
There are plenty of comfortable seating options too.
Cabin interior and amenities
Now, let’s go to the part that is perhaps the most relevant when it comes to the business class experience: the cabin.
If you had read my previous review of ITA Airways Premium Economy, you would have seen that I really liked ITA Airways’ overall cabin design approach.
The cabin feels pretty modern (the aircraft was actually pretty new, a super-quiet A330-900neo not even two years old!) and I really like the light cream colour and leather texture of the Thompson Vantage XL seats, which feel really elegant and upmarket.
On ITA Airways A330-900neo the business class cabin has a 1-2-1 layout, with all seats having direct access to the aisle (no privacy doors, though).
I was on a window seat on both legs of the trip, although I have also added (below) a picture of the middle seat so that you can see how it looks like.
The seats are all fully lie-flat and have a rather large flat surface on the side which provides quite a lot of space to keep your small personal items as well as a small shelf to hold the headphones and a bootle of water. The seat has also a small literature pocket on the opposite side, but didn’t use it at all.
Each seat is fitted with a 17-inch screen (more on inflight entertainment shortly).
There is also a reading light just immediately on your back, perfectly blended into the seat’s frame (above).
To recharge your portable electronic devices you have several options: there is a C-port, an USB port and a regular electric socket.
Below you can see how the seat controls look like, letting you control the position of the seat and switch on or off the lights.
I also liked a lot the way the food table gets unfolded or folded, laterally with a simple button. A very smooth mechanism that does away with those complicated mechanical contraptions some older types of seat sometimes have.
Each passenger is provided with not one but two amenity kits. The standard one, which is somehow basic, but contains some truly useful stuff, like a pair of socks and a dental kit and of rather good quality.
Now, when it comes to amenity kits, there is this second one, “Wellness on Board” which I found most interesting, particularly when it comes to the presentation, wrapped in soft cloth. It is, in fact, a cosmetics set by a company called “QC Terme”, which manages several spas and resorts in the Italian Alps. It contains exfoliating shower gel, shampoo, hand sanitizer, face cream, body cream and hand butter.
Below you can get the seat view, both with the lights on and with ITA Airways’ very cool blue LED cabin lighting, totally fitting to the airline’s brand!
Inflight entertainment
As mentioned earlier, ITA Airways business class seats are each fitted with a 17” touch screen. This is a great piece of hardware, very modern and responsive.
Through the screen you can access ITA Airways’ digital content library. It is perhaps not the largest among the major carriers, running more in the dozens than in the hundreds of titles (perhaps not a bad thing in order to avoid FOMO). So, pretty substantial and with some good titles, in any case.
In order to make the most out of it, there are also a pair of noise cancelling (branded) headphones.
Besides the films and series available on the digital platform, I also liked the flight maps, which provide information about places you are overflying (an old idea of mine that I am glad someone has finally implemented!).
And, while technically not “entertainment”, I think is worth a mention also to the inflight safety video, which is sports-themed and features a handful of Italian Olympian athletes of different disciplines.
ITA Airways offers internet connectivity throughout the flight. Messaging (and social media notifications) is provided for free during an interval of 30 minutes during the flight. For everything else you will need to pay (also in business class). Below you can see the different options available, the two-hour and full-flight plans. The latter is capped at 1.5GB.
Food and drink
This is another area in which ITA Airways shines. I will try to provide a detailed overview of what we had to eat and drink during the two legs of the trip, since they took place at very different times of the day (midday vs. early hours of the morning), so the food offering was quite different.
Let’s start by saying ITA Airways, surely well aware of the importance of food in Italian culture, has really invested to provide a great food experience onboard its aircraft. In fact, ITA has teamed up with Milanese star chef Davide Oldani to design its inflight menus.
Here I provide a glimpse of what was on offer for the main meal on the first of two flights (FCO-DEL). We had another, much lighter, meal just before landing during our 7-hour flight (more on this below)
It is worth noting also that ITA Airways provides a food and a wine menu. The latter has lots of details about the wines on offer (btw, the one in the picture doesn’t correspond to the one depicted here on the menu).
The crew can also prepare cocktails upon demand and, of course, some Italian classics like Aperol or Limoncello couldn’t be absent!
So, let’s have a look at the actual dishes served on ITA Airways:
First we have this “Frangipane” zucchini with pine nuts (note also the slice of rustic bread and the nice cutlery presentation).
I also selected a vegetable cannelloni ragout. Note that ITA Airways has a specific section for pasta between the entrants and the mains!
A bit of fish (herb-crusted snapper) as a main, served with some “agretti” as a side (an algae-like plant that grows on coastal areas, rather interesting in taste and texture!).
Interestingly, the dessert selection did not contain very overtly sweet or sugary options. I opted for the cheese platter, as you can see below. And, to top it up, an espresso. As far as I know, ITA Airways is the only airline to provide this proper Italian coffee experience onboard (but happy to get suggestions if you know of other airlines doing it!)
Last but not least, just before landing (1.10am local time, but still relatively early evening in Europe) we were served this other pizza-style meal, with some olives, sundried tomatoes and artichokes on the side and some fruit.
Inflight meal on the return flight DEL-FCO
This was a 3am flight, a complicated slot when it comes to planning your meal offering, since this is not a time most people are used to eat at, but at the same time, as an airline you want to offer at least something to eat to those that want to.
I think ITA Airways solved it in a rather nice way: before departure crew asks whether you wish to eat or not, and if you do, they serve you a rather light, but still pretty nice meal.
So, even if I had had a nice Indian-style meal at the lounge, I decided to try what was on offer, if only for the sake of sharing my impressions here.
This was actually a good decision, because the salmon was truly excellent and the fruit and pastry were pretty light as well, perhaps just the sort of light meal to help you catch a bit of sleep right afterwards. Btw, just as in the earlier leg of the flight, I was also offered a welcome drink and appetizer of assorted nuts.
We were also served breakfast right before landing, this meal already in the sort of time of the day that it kind of belongs to.
There was a choice of “Italian-European” breakfast , with croissants and all that, or “Indian”-style breakfast (I guess this is specific of this route), so I opted for the latter, in part out of curiosity, in part because I knew there was going to be another European-type breakfast on my next, connecting, flight anyway.
You can see it below. Btw, both servings of fruit during the flight included papaya, which was a nice surprise!
Our take
ITA Airways has a very well-rounded business-class product. The two key elements, the seat and the food, are both excellent and I guess having a very modern fleet also helps (the A330-900neo is super quiet and makes for a very smooth ride).
This was not a surprise since I had already got a very positive impression after experiencing ITA Airways’ Premium Economy cabin.
In a forthcoming review I will detail my experience on the following leg of this trip: the short-haul business class experience on an ITA Airways A321neo fitted with the medium-range cabin.