After a week of holidays in Rome and Naples, Italy, it was time to fly back to Belgium. A few hours before our flight, Brussels Airlines decided to cancel the SN3170 from Naples to Brussels. A second SMS informed us that we had been rerouted on ITA Airways from Naples to Rome, with a lengthy five-hour layover in Rome to wait for our onward flight SN3184 to Brussels. Despite our delay of over eight hours, we tried to make the best of our extra time. Having never flown on ITA Airways, formerly known as Alitalia, I decided to document the experience.
At Naples Airport
Just like in the city, the Naples airport is crowded—mainly due to the busy holiday season, but Italian airports are always busy, noisy, and crowded. After a quick pass through security, we went to the boarding gates to wait for our domestic flight to Rome. While several parts of the airport have been refurbished, the building still looks dirty and messy.
Checking In and Boarding
Like any other airline nowadays, I was able to check-in online. I got my boarding passes and entered them into the ITA Airways app. As Brussels Airlines, the successor of Alitalia, announced flight information via SMS: “Dear Customer, please note that flight AZ1270 has been delayed. The flight is now expected to depart at 15:50 on 18/07/2024.”
“Relax, we are in Italy,” we told ourselves as we continued the wait. Flightradar24 informed us that our flight would be operated by EI-EIB with the “Born in 2021” livery. However, the Airbus A320 was scheduled to depart Milan Linate at 16:00, which was well past our departure time.
Luckily, ITA Airways scheduled another Airbus A320 (registered EI-DTH) for the short hop to Fiumicino. The flight was running even more behind schedule as the aircraft was parked at a remote gate. A bus brought us to the aircraft.
As our seats were 25E and 25F, we opted to board via the rear stairs. The flight was almost full, I believe that my seat pitch was rather narrow.
After a delay of 1 hour and 24 minutes, announced by the copilot as “air traffic control restrictions“, we finally took off for the 30-minute flight, which was uneventful. During the flight, the seat-belt sign was turned on the entire time, and we didn’t see the crew as they had their galley curtains closed, which was just fine.
The flight took us over the city of Naples and also overflew the city of Rome, which was nice to see, considering these were the two cities we visited.
Arrival in Rome
After arrival, buses awaited us to bring us to the brand new airport terminal, which opened in 2022. Only the front door was used to disembark. In the terminal, we wanted to try out an airport lounge, but they were all crowded or not accessible (ITA Airways passengers only). Now we are just hoping that our evening flight to Brussels isn’t delayed much.
Note: flight date –> 18 July 2024
Sound like quite an awful experience….
Not my intention to make it awful, it’s the circumstances that were not optimal with a cancelled flight, then delays.
It’s always a bit frustrating when travel plans change, but it sounds like you made the most of your time. I’ve heard mixed reviews about ITA Airways since their transition from Alitalia. Thanks for sharing your experience about ITA.