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ITA Airways A220 short haul business class review from London to Milan

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This is our review of ITA Airways business class on its short haul A220.

Italian airline ITA Airways (pronounced as in ITA-ly) has been growing from strength to strength since its debut in 2021.

Launched as a brand-new airline, it was designed to replace the ailing former flag carrier Alitalia which had been through more bail-outs than Italian tax payers cared to count. So far it has succeeded, reaching breakeven a year ahead of schedule and Lufthansa Group announcing its intention to acquire the airline.

Review: ITA Airways A220 business class review from London City to Milan Linate

Stripped of legacy contracts and costs, the new airline has been able to focus on passenger experience with a fleet of new-generation aircraft.

Through an exclusive agreement with Airbus it has acquired the A350 and A330neo on the widebody side and the A220 and A320 family as its single-aisles.

Part of that strategy includes launching direct flights from London City Airport to its hubs at Milan Linate and Rome Fiumicino on board its smallest plane – the A220. ITA Airways usually offers five daily flights from London City to Milan and two flights to Rome.

ITA offered HfP a return business class flight to Milan to try it out. We paid all of our other costs – Hyatt generously arranged a stay at Park Hyatt Milan which I review here.

Review: ITA Airways A220 business class review from London City to Milan Linate

Check-in and bag drop at London City Airport

If you have never flown from London City Airport, it is worth a try. It’s compact size means that you can rock up to the airport an hour before departure, whizz through security and still have time to grab a coffee airside before boarding.

The only downside is that there are no lounges. Truthfully, however, you don’t need one. If you are arriving early enough to need one then you are not ‘doing’ it correctly, as the MSP of the airport is the speed at which you can get through.

As I was only heading to Milan for a two-night trip I was only taking my duffel bag so I checked in online and headed straight through security. However, I did walk past the ITA Airways desks. There were no queues for either economy or business class passengers, so you can expect speedy service if you do have bags to drop.

One of the benefits of being a brand-new airline like ITA is that everything, including the app, just works. This is not true of some other airlines whose websites and apps are notoriously rubbish and haven’t worked for me for the past few months ….

On board ITA Airways A220

It just so happened that my flight was on board ITA’s newest A220 aircraft named ‘Gianluigi Buffon’ after the Italian goalkeeper, which was delivered in March 2024. It still had that new plane smell and looked untouched.

We haven’t, yet, written much about the A220. It became the smallest aircraft in the Airbus lineup after the programme was taken over from Bombardier.

Review: ITA Airways A220 business class review from London City to Milan Linate

Unlike the A320neo, it is a true next-generation single-aisle aircraft, having been designed in the 2010s and launched in 2016. I often describe it as a mini A350, as it shares many features including much larger windows, carbon fibre composites, quieter and more fuel efficient engines, lower cabin altitude and larger overheard bins. All together, it is one of the most comfortable aircraft to fly.

Review: ITA Airways A220 business class review from London City to Milan Linate

You’ll immediately notice that it’s marginally smaller than its A320 siblings thanks to the 3-2 seating layout. Whilst this is uniform across both business in economy, in business class the middle seat of the triplet is empty whilst both of the twin seats are sold.

Review: ITA Airways A220 business class review from London City to Milan Linate

ITA has gone with a stylish navy and cream leather seat:

Review: ITA Airways A220 business class review from London City to Milan Linate

I was sat in 1F, the bulkead window seat with plenty of legroom.

Review: ITA Airways A220 business class review from London City to Milan Linate

The remaining seats have 31 inches of legroom, which isn’t huge – about 1″ more than Club Europe on BA’s A320s.

Review: ITA Airways A220 business class review from London City to Milan Linate

There’s a bifold tray table stowed in the armrest for row 1, whilst all other seats have a flip-down table.

Review: ITA Airways A220 business class review from London City to Milan Linate

In-flight wifi and connectivity

In-flight wifi is available and comes in three price points:

  • $5 for messaging
  • $10 for browsing
  • $15 for streaming

This seemed quite pricey for a 90-minute flight. I opted for the browsing package which was very responsive, to the extent it didn’t feel like plane wifi at all. I was able to browse social media including sending and receiving images and videos and generally browse the web.

Power is available through a USB-C (60W) and USB-A port between the seats. There’s one per passenger.

ITA Airways business class food and service on the A220

The service started with a pre-departure drink of orange juice or water. This is unusual on a short haul flight, so bonus points to ITA Airways, although the orange juice was very sweet and clearly not 100% pure.

Review: ITA Airways A220 business class review from London City to Milan Linate

Once the plane had flattened out after its steep take-off from London City, crew came round offering lunch.

I’m told that the service varies depending on what time your flight is. Flights during lunch and dinner times feature a hot meal, whilst flights between these periods feature a cold meal comprising three mini sandwiches.

On this short 90 minute trip there was no choice and I was simply handed a tray with a bread roll, salad (containing meat) as well as ravioli in a tomato sauce:

Review: ITA Airways A220 business class review from London City to Milan Linate

Dessert was (I believe) apple cake. A choice of drinks was offered, although on this particular flight limited to soft drinks – they had forgotten to load any alcohol on the outbound flight from Milan!

I opted for the pear juice, which you rarely see, which was delicious.

Entertainingly, it seems that ITA Airways is using the old cutlery from Alitalia as you can see from the stamp on the underside! It’s not the nicest airline cutlery (I found it a bit sharp on the edges) and it’s something that ITA could easily upgrade.

After lunch, I was offered tea or coffee. The crew also came round with two further snacks. First up was a delicious chocolate cannolo:

Review: ITA Airways A220 business class review from London City to Milan Linate

…. whilst the second was a small chocolate:

Review: ITA Airways A220 business class review from London City to Milan Linate

With such a short flight time, it wasn’t long before we started our descent into Milan Linate, the closer and more convenient of the two Milan airports. The airport is small and I was through immigration within a few minutes. Anyone with a British passport will be pleased to know that the Italians let you use the eGates.

Conclusion

It’s hard to beat flying to Milan from London City Airport on an ITA Airways A220.

First of all, you are flying in and out of small, convenient and centrally-located airports. Boarding takes minutes; there are no 20-minute taxis to the runway like at Heathrow and you are through immigration within a heartbeat at the other end.

Second of all, you are flying on the newest short haul aircraft available. The 3-2 layout is perfect regardless of whether you’re travelling as a family or a couple. The seats are comfortable, the windows big, the overhead lockers ample and the aircraft quiet.

Third, you get the ITA Airways service. The crew on my flight were lovely: friendly, happy to be there and constantly offering top ups and snacks.

You can find out more, and book, on the ITA Airways website here. Don’t forget that ITA is part of SkyTeam (sort of …. not all members have integrated it yet) so you can enjoy any Virgin Flying Club elite benefits and vice versa, as well as earn Virgin Atlantic tier points and redeemable Virgin Points.

Head for Points made a financial contribution to the Woodland Trust as part of this trip. The Woodland Trust creates and manages forests in the UK in accordance with the Woodland Carbon Code.

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Comments (66)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Panda Mick says:
    19 Apr19 April 05:18

    Flew ITA Business to Linate last month. Was £150 cheaper than AF / KLM

    Service was excellent. Had to use the shared lounge at T4 LHR on the way out, which was pleasant.

    What was unpleasant was a remote stand at Linate, which I didn’t quite understand: Landed around 3pm, and it wasn’t busy

    But the A220 is an excellent aircraft, and the service was just excellent. Couldn’t fault it, nor the price

    • ATP says:
      19 Apr19 April 08:03

      I used to fly to Milan weekly. I’ve never not had a bus gate for Linate. I’m not sure Linate even has proper gates.

      • southlondonphil says:
        19 Apr19 April 09:09

        Linate only has 5 Jet Bridges (Gates A17-A21) and they’re all inside the Schengen Zone on the first floor. Schengen Gates A1-A16 and the Non-Schengen Gates B25-B28 are all Bus Gates on the Ground Floor

        • Nick says:
          19 Apr19 April 10:16

          LIN and the Italian authorities wanted to make the airport Schengen-only at one point because it was so inefficient to keep immigration facilities just for a handful of UK flights, so the bus is really a small price to pay.

    • Rhys says:
      19 Apr19 April 10:36

      All non-Schengen flights are remote stands at Linate, unfortunately!

  • Nick says:
    19 Apr19 April 06:11

    I appreciate, and totally understand, the usual concentration in reporting about airline/aircraft food, drinks, wi-fi, seat layout & legroom, but, personally, as an old codger, who’s been travelling very regularly, for over 50 years now, I look at just about every latest airline seat nowadays and cringe at how ‘skinny’ they are. Sure, for the younger passenger, they may class a seat as ‘comfortable’, but, IMHO, they’re now considerably less ‘comfortable’ than ever before, indeed often uncomfortable.

    For short haul, OK, it’s not a big deal, but when you look at the similar decline in ‘padding’, in pretty much all airline seats now, it’s depressing.

    • flyforfun says:
      19 Apr19 April 09:47

      The change in materials shouldn’t impact on comfort too much, but the issues I find is that firstly your obviously closer to person in front and behind you now, but secondly the thinness means when the person behind uses the seat pocket you can feel their hands rummaging around. Or worse – when they decide to put their knees or feet up on the back of your seat and you feel their knobly bones. That’s when I start my constant reclining and up again until they get the hint.

      • supergers49 says:
        19 Apr19 April 13:12

        I take it you check to see if the individual isn’t actually quite tall and doesn’t have anywhere else to put their knees? Unfortunately, as a fairly tall individual I end up squashed into most short haul seats, so if you did that to me it would just make matters much worse for yourself.

        • flyforfun says:
          19 Apr19 April 13:54

          I’m referring moreso to those that actually raise their knees off the floor and pin them to the seat back and then attempt to fall asleep.

          One of the undeclared benefits of not being 2M+ is being able to fit relatively comfortably into most Y seats, although there was a Monarch plane I got on once and I would have suffered claustrophobia if I hadn’t booked an extra leg room seat (easy access for the loo!!). Every else had the seat backs on their knees easily. Oddly enough, I think they did have the thick padded seats at that time.

  • Manya says:
    19 Apr19 April 06:56

    ITA Airways is pronounced as in ITA-ly??

    • Rob says:
      19 Apr19 April 07:36

      Yes. It’s not eye-tea-aye Airways.

      • Andrew. says:
        19 Apr19 April 08:16

        eye and aye sound identical.

      • vlcnc says:
        19 Apr19 April 10:46

        Not sure about this Rob, my partner is Italian and when we’re in Sicily almost everyone calls it “EE-TA” – it’s very normal in Italian language to pronounce acronyms like a word. Iirc think even the announcements at the airport and on the plane are like this.

        • Rob says:
          19 Apr19 April 12:25

          I said / meant it was eee-ta! As in Italy (although some people pronounce Italy with a hard I).

  • The real Swiss Tony says:
    19 Apr19 April 07:08

    What’s MSP? I though that was a member of some local council up north. Did you mean USP or am I missing some jargon? (probably also good editorial process not to just liberally use TLAs).

    • lumma says:
      19 Apr19 April 07:35

      Minneapolis Airport

    • southlondonphil says:
      19 Apr19 April 09:22

      Major Selling Point – since speed of passage through the airport is neither unique to LCY nor the only attraction OF LCY, proximity to ‘Downtown’ being another.

    • BBbetter says:
      19 Apr19 April 09:40

      ‘Some local council’ – I guess that’s enough to trigger Indyref2.

    • Tariq says:
      19 Apr19 April 10:39

      Probably supposed to be ‘main selling point’.

    • @mkcol says:
      20 Apr20 April 17:22

      I translated it as KSP

  • Bob says:
    19 Apr19 April 07:16

    Nice airline review. Bit pathetic that any airline doesn’t provide proper freshly squeezed orange in Business. The food looked pretty average or less. I thought Italians were into food? However, I’d like to try City Airport for the speed and less hassle, so perhaps I’ll give them a try but in Economy. I’m not paying for that unappealing food.

    • Throwawayname says:
      19 Apr19 April 08:21

      It’s only a regional jet flight between pint-sized airports, catering is never going to be excellent (although Air Dolomiti do have espresso machines on the E90).

      However, I would recommend flying ITA business from FCO, or at least finding a way to access the Schengen lounge there which offers cocktails that easily rival those at any high end bar.

  • PGR says:
    19 Apr19 April 07:41

    If the “browsing” Wi-Fi is that good would love to know if they’ve genuinely cracked “streaming” – often in-flight Wi-Fi is terrible and nowhere near handling streaming video.

  • Paul says:
    19 Apr19 April 07:53

    The Italians do let you use Egates but still need you to get a stamp, or at least they did in Rome last year. You could not use the EU egates though and there were separate egates for non EU citizens.

    • Brian says:
      19 Apr19 April 08:12

      Would think you need a stamp at the point of entry into any Schengen country. Otherwise the 90 day timer isn’t documented in your passport.

      There are different ways to achieve getting a stamp, either manned booth for the whole thing or an e-gate + stamp.

      Ireland probably has the worst set up. UK & RoI citizens don’t even need to pass through immigration formalities. But we’re lumped in with arrivals from everywhere else. Arrival in the U.K. there are usually no checks. Ever was it thus, of course.

      • Michael Jennings says:
        19 Apr19 April 09:47

        Since 1997 British people at Irish airports have been required to produce passports or other identity documents sufficient to demonstrate that they are British and therefore not subject to immigration checks. Which in practice means immigration checks…

        One wonders what is the point of this, particularly given that one can cross the land border between Northern Ireland and the ROI with no checks at all.

        • Danny says:
          19 Apr19 April 10:09

          Even domestic ROI arrivals have to face an immigration officer at Dublin

        • CJD says:
          19 Apr19 April 12:59

          Because the CTA only applies to UK and Irish citizens. A non-EU citizen who is in the UK doesn’t have the same right to travel freely to Ireland as a UK citizen, so while they might be able to board the same flight, there needs to be some sort of check to ensure that both passengers have the right to actually be in Ireland.

  • Colin_Thames says:
    19 Apr19 April 08:07

    Nice review but it sells economy better. So, on Business you got no booze, no choice of food, some snacks with coffee, no lounge (in LCY). What exactly would you be getting in Business that you don’t in Economy and how much more would you pay?

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