Alitalia, that seemingly wonderful Skyteam airline is in the process of fleet renewals, and working with Embraer, they have agreed to lease 20 regional jets.
This will be broken down into 15 E-175’s (the shorter twin isle jet capable up to 86 seats) and 5 E-190’s (the longer 106 seater jet), with deliveries due to begin in Q3 2011 – a very “quick” turnaround for these frames.
Alitalia will be operating this fleet, basing it through it’s main bases, to run routes on Italian Domestic Services, as well as European routes.
As flyers will know, if an E-175/E-190 is configured correctly, it’s one heck of a little aircraft with 2 x 2 seating, reasonable seat-pitch and a habit of mis-aligning the windows.
A good sign that Alitalia are slowly renewing and improving themselves.