I just noticed I never finished publishing this series from last year, back from Catania :)
Here we go !
The day before the flight I checked in online and noticed that the A321neo that was supposed to operate the flight has been replaced by a 321ceo. #nexttime
catania airport -CTA-
I was dropped off by my driver in front of the terminal building, the drive was much faster than when I arrived, only around 20 minutes. That would leave me plenty (in fact, too much!) time in the airport.


When I entered in Sicily it was open bar: no controls nor any Covid papers checked. But to enter the airport, you can't without Covid and Boarding pass. But at least, everything was well organized:



Social distancing was not really respected :(


In the terminal building:

As I was able to check in online, no need to go through physical check-in, I headed straight to the departures controls:


Business Class flying is something a gift :) :)


Since there was a special and "private" lane to avoid the queue:


Almost nobody at the fast track and now, I got two hours to kill!


There is a lounge, at least, supposed to be a lounge, the airport website says it is closed, Priority pass says it is open. And the screens show the way to go. Let's see:

This way then:

I wasn't expecting anything else :)

The FIDS:

Quite a lot of people in the airport:


Impossible to find a seat close to a power plug. I tried my luck downstairs, and lady luck was with me :)


Lady luck will not stay with me too long, a boarding gate change meant that a Ryanair flight was due to start boarding where I was half an hour later, I escaped quickly and went back upstairs.

The 321 bound to FRA:

EasyJet A320neo:


And my flight:


Two Wizz A321neo:

Again my plane:



Before boarding I went to the lavs, that were clean enough:

Non Schengen part of the terminal:


My gate:

Monaco stands for Munich in Italian
the flight
Boarding started right on time while a Eurowings Airbus was leaving to DUS:

Alitalia last days of operation:


Down to the plane:


Door Shoot:

Fuselage shoot:

Old NEK seats:


There was water available on all business class seats:

Safety card:




I am not a big fan of first rows, I find the legroom to be limited, but there wasn't any other window seat available:

AZ again:

The purser sees me taking a lot of pictures and offers me a cockpit visit. How not to say no? :)

The crew is really friendly we had a chat about the swap from neo to ceo and they were also looking forward to do the flight on the neo, at least I wasn't the only one disappointed :)
Back to my seat:


We pushed back a few minutes late:


Line up and a rolling take off:



I'll be back, but with a nicer weather this time :)



Beaches south of Catania:

Rocky coast north of Catania:



My hotel is at the left bottom of the picture, you can see its pool:


During climb there were some pretty heavy turbulences.

And still impossible to see the Etna :(
WiFi was available but no power plugs :(


Les tarifs hors pass gratuit :


Vulcano Island, behind is Lipari and at the back Salina:



Very scenic views, just loved it!


The only regret was we didn't overfly the Stromboli but there were heavy thunderstorms there.


The tray table is attached to the wall:


Then come Ischia and Procida:


Back towards Italy:



Meal is being served:


It was a shrimp salad that tasted really great, the bread was served hot.
I took a Campari Orange to go with:

The cruise was smooth:


A coffee and the LH chocolate to finish:

The Alps:


Bavaria:



Nearing MUC:



And landed!



Heading towards the gate:



I'll catch you one day ;)

A320neo:

Waiting for the jetbridge to connect:


And leaving the aircraft:

A last look to my plane:

The connecting flights are well mentionned, mine is not on the list I have a rather long connection :(

bonus / north coast of catania
I had a bit of luck since there was a short window of sunshine where I could walk a bit on the shores. No beaches, only lava rocks:


Most of the seaside shops / restaurants have already closed:


Some more view during my short walk:


four points catania
My hotel had pool and I was even able to have a swim between two thunderstorms. The water was heated otherwise it would have been too cold to swim.



The room was nothing special, but the price, at around 80€ was unbeatable!



I had a seaview room:


The building is know for his 80' style, you love it or you hate it. Not my taste :)


italian kitchen
Caprese salad:

Wonderful fruits:

Italian sweets:

And a too die for risotto:

I rounded up this meal by a cannello, a Sicily speciality with sweet ricotta inside. Another thing to die for :)

Wow, the queues at check-in and security were crazy long! I had no idea Catania in the fall was such a hot destination! I guess the weather is much better than France. Good thing you didn't need to go to check-in counters and there was a separate premium lane--those can be hit or miss depending on airports and time of year.
The old NEK seats are really looking tired compared to newer-ish J cabins on competing carriers like BA, IB, AF who all have in-seat power for the most part. LH seem to be rolling out their new short-haul cabins veeeery slowly.
One thing I will say is better about LH Euro-J is that the tray tables are not in the armrests in the 1st row. This is one thing I don't like about flying short-haul J on BA/IB. I usually like the 1st row because there is more room, especially for the kid to get up a bit without bothering seats in front, BUT he can't lay across seats if he wants to sleep since the armrests are fixed.
The meal looks quite good and is well-presented, though it would be nice to have a hot meal on a 2h flight.
Nice views on departure from CTA! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks my dear for the report, with a lot of nice pictures!
Kevin is right about these tired ass looking Nek seats and the grey is the most boring colour you can find.
At least tho the service is well presented and seems nice, altho I do prefer the real and local tomato/mozzarella combo.
What a shame you didn't get to rest your august bum on the etna, next time surely!