The carrier will fly from Rome to San Francisco up to five times per week with its Airbus A350 aircraft.
ITA Airways has operated its first flight from Rome (FCO) to San Francisco (SFO), with the airline’s distinctive blue Airbus A350-900 touching down in California on Saturday afternoon, following a more than eleven-hour journey from Italy.
To celebrate the inaugural flight, the carrier held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the departure gate prior to the flight’s return to Rome. ITA Airways’ Chief Commercial Officer, Emiliana Limosani, was present, together with other representatives from the airline and San Francisco International Airport’s Chief Financial and Commercial Officer, Kevin Bumen.
At the event, Limosani said,
“The new connection to San Francisco further enriches the intercontinental network of ITA Airways, which is one of the company’s main assets. With the launch of this new destination, the second in California and the sixth in North America, we consolidate the company’s expansion towards the US market, which was the first international market for ITA Airways.”
The flight schedule
ITA Airways’ flights between Rome and San Francisco will operate three times per week, as per the following schedule:
| Flight number | Route | Departure | Arrival | Block time | Frequency |
| AZ640 | FCO-SFO | 09:35 | 13:15 | 12 hrs 40 mins | Tue, Sat, Sun |
| AZ641 | SFO-FCO | 15:15 | 12:05 (+1 day) | 11 hrs 50 mins | Tue, Sat, Sun |
For the peak summer months of August and September, the frequency will increase to five per week, with additional departures from Rome on Thursdays and Fridays. From October 1st, flights will return to three times per week, operating on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. The routing of the inaugural flight can be seen on FlightRadar24.com:
Flights will be operated by the Airbus A350-900, of which ITA Airways currently has six, with a further two on order. Each of the airline’s A350s can carry up to 334 passengers in a two-class configuration – 33 in business class and 301 in economy class. ITA Airways will face direct competition during the summer in the form of United Airlines’ seasonal route.
Expansion in North and South America
San Francisco now joins the airline’s existing US routes – New York (JFK), Boston (BOS), Washington (IAD), Miami (MIA), and Los Angeles (LAX). By offering connections through its hub at Rome Fiumicino Airport, ITA Airways hopes to tap into the substantial business, leisure, and VFR (visiting friends and relatives) traffic between the two countries.
The airline will further expand its intercontinental network later this year, when it launches direct flights to Rio de Janeiro (GIG) on October 29th. The Brazilian city will join São Paulo (GRU) and Buenos Aires (EZE) on ITA Airways’ South American route map.
ITA Airways is not the only European carrier to inaugurate service to San Francisco on July 1st – Norse Atlantic Airways also flew its first flight to the city from London Gatwick (LGW) on the same day, using the Boeing 787-9.
