ITA Airways rolls out AI climb optimisation across its fleet
ITA Airways is rolling out SITA's OptiFlight across its fleet, using machine learning and weather data to recommend the most efficient climb for each flight. It is targeting more than 7,100 tonnes of fuel savings across 2025 and 2026. A separate agreement with Trenitalia sets up a joint AI lab for combined rail and air travel.
The operating picture
A climb profile for each aircraft
Hamburg Airport ITA Airways Airbus A320-216 EI-EID (DSC08857). Photograph: MarcelX42 / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped to fit). Illustrates the airline, not an AI deployment.
The climb burns fuel faster than any other phase of flight. ITA Airways said in April 2026 that it was equipping its whole fleet with OptiFlight, which adjusts airspeed, acceleration, altitude transitions and climb Mach for each flight using models of each individual aircraft.
In March 2026 ITA Airways and Trenitalia, the Italian state rail operator, agreed to set up a joint AI Intermodality and Sustainability Lab to design and test AI for travel flows, demand prediction and emissions reduction. It is a memorandum of understanding with no published projects yet, so it stays in the wider register.
Selected implementations
The work behind the evidence
01 / Deployed
Climb guidance for every flight, against a 7,100-tonne target
The operational problem
A single standard climb profile ignores the differences between individual aircraft and the weather on the day, so it rarely gives the most efficient climb.
What the evidence reports
ITA Airways and SITA said in April 2026 that the airline is deploying OptiFlight across its fleet. The tool uses predictive analytics, machine learning and weather data to calculate the most efficient climb for each flight, with guidance modelled for each individual aircraft. The airline targets more than 7,100 tonnes of fuel and 22,100 tonnes of CO2 saved across 2025 and 2026. Francesco Presicce, chief innovation and strategic projects officer, said the savings come "without compromising efficiency or safety".
Operational significance
With the tool across the fleet, every departure gets a recommendation, so the airline can measure realised savings against its own target flight by flight.
Evidence still needed
The 7,100 tonnes is a target across two years. ITA says savings are already being realised but has published no achieved figure, and how often pilots follow the recommendations is not reported.
Other records are shown separately, including non-AI technology and programmes at different stages of deployment. A register entry does not establish a measured AI benefit.
ITA Airways and Trenitalia memorandum of understanding for a joint AI Intermodality and Sustainability Lab · Reported · unverified
On 9 March 2026 ITA Airways and Trenitalia signed an MoU that includes setting up a joint AI Intermodality and Sustainability Lab.
A source can verify an announcement without verifying its projected outcome.
Editorial assessment
ITA Airways' operational AI is focused on fuel, with a fleetwide deployment and a stated target that can be checked.
The figure for the end of 2026 against the 7,100-tonne target will be the test. The Trenitalia lab becomes a story once it names a project.
Live data from the Aerostack register. Status reflects published evidence only. See Our approach for how records are graded.
Aerostack register · 2 tracked deployments
Aerostack tracks AI deployments across airports and airlines, with the published evidence behind each record. Photography is real aviation imagery. Record thumbnails may show the named airport or airline; other photographs do not.
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