INTRODUCTION
Hello FlightReporters!
The 9th April my father turned 70. Since he planned to celebrate his birthday the Saturday after (13rd Aprile) I decided to make him a surprise showing up at the party in Rome.
On month before I checked flights or trains from Milan, leaving on Saturday and departing back on Sunday afternoon.
Train costed around 190 euros with italo train operator. I neither check Trenitalia since usually tickets are more expensive.
I took a look at ITA Airways' website and the price was around 160 euros.
Since a dear friend of mine works as flight attendant for ITA he offered me to check for discounted flights.
He gave me two possibilities: stand-by tickets for 91 euros and confirmed tickets for 110 euros. Having to work on Monday I went for the latter without any doubt.
I choose these routes:
Saturday 13rd April, AZ2045, LIN-FCO, 11:00 - 12:10
Sunday 14th April, AZ2050, FCO-LIN, 18:00 - 19:10
ROUTING
Enchainement de vols
- 1AZ2045 - Economy - Milan → Rome - Airbus A320neo
- 2
GETTING TO LINATE
Since November 2022 Linate Airport is connected to the city center by M4 (blue) Metro line. It runs from the airport to San Babila square, in the middle of Milan's fashion district, just a few minutes from Duomo cathedral.
According to Google Maps I need 45 minutes from my home near Udine metro station (on the M2) to get to Linate. With the flight planned for 11 I decided to be at the airport around 9:15/9:30.
At 8:35 I left home
Udine metro station, on the green line (M2)
First change in Loreto to get the red line (M1)
In San Babile the transfer between M1 and M4 is out of the fare gates
M4 is an automated metro line
The website claims that the connection between San Babila and Linate takes 12 minutes. I check the clock and it's true
The potential of having an airport so close to the center is enormous
At 9:21 I step inside Milano-Linate Airport terminal
The building is connected to the metro station by a short tunnel
AT THE AIRPORT
Even if I had checked-in the day before I made my way to ITA Airways counter to get my boarding pass printed
No queue at the check-in desks
The lady at the counter asked me if I wanted to put my baggage in the hold for free. She told me the plane was packed and full of connecting passengers in FCO
By the way I refused the offer since I didn't want to wait in Rome
Breakfast time
Getting straight to security
It took me literaly 5 minutes to clear security
The agent at the x-ray joked with me about my plane tattoo on the forearm
The departure lounge was busy, but not full
With 40 minutes before scheduled boarding I went upstairs for some spotting
The apron was quite full of birds
ITA Airwas A320neo
ITA Airways A320s and Luxair ATR-72
Air France A319 departing
SkyAlps ATR-72
Air Dolomiti Embraer just landed
As boarding time approached I walked to my gate, A18
My ride to FCO:
ITA Airways Airbus A320neo, EI-INA
Initially destinated to S7 Airlines, it become part of AZ's fleet in March '23 (1.4 years old)
It's equipped with 180 seats in mixed C-Y configuration. The plane is dedicated to football player Giacinto Facchetti.
The gate was opened 10 minutes in advance
(Blue) corporate picture
The seat I automatically got was 32A, on the last row
At 10:50 boarding was declared completed and doors were closed minutes after
Precisely at 11 we left the gate
Taxiing by two twins
Bombardier Global 7500
Waiting for this ITA A220 landing to align on the runway
the flight
14 minutes after scheduled the two Pratt&Whitneys went full power
The geneal aviation sector was packed of private jets
Forlanini Avenue, the access road to LIN and Milan in the background
CityLife district on the left and Porta Nuova skyscrapers on the right
Banking over Milan suburbs
Pointing eastward for a while as we climbed
Milan Outer Eastern Ring Road (A58) and Milan-Brescia (A35) motorways' intersection
Snowy Alps are visible in the distance
Crossing the river Po somewhere over Piacenza
Caorso former nuclear power plant (left) and A1-A21 motorway
Fifteen minutes into the flight a drink service was delivered
I went for an orange juice
Corporate shot
Outside a light mist made any sight-spotting difficult
Trasimeno Lake, in Umbria
25 minutes after taking off seat belt signs went on and cabin was set for landing
Meanwhile we approached Tyrrean Sea coastline north of Rome
Bracciano Lake
The countryside around Rome
We'd land from north
Flaps down
A12 motorway
Runway 16L for us, as usual
One minute before mid-day we touched down at Rome "Leonardo da Vinci" International Airport
Landing was gentle, braking a bit less
Line up of ITA's A320s welcoming us
Poste Air Cargo Boeing 737
Pier A61-83 with Ryanair, TAP and Air France birds parked
Iberia and ITA docked at pier A31-52
Reaching gate A33 in a few minutes
Lufthansa and ITA Airways A320neos parked together
Rehersal of the future marriage?
Opening the doors took more than expected
We left the plane at 12:15
I made my way straight to the exit
Moments later I met my mother and my sister parked at the kiss and ride lane
I arrived home at 13, four hours and half after leaving my house in Milan
Such a good door-to-door performance
Stay tuned for the return flight
Thanks for sharing the ITA flight experience within Italy!
My pleasure :)
Nice to see ITA have now repainted a majority of the fleet in that beautiful livery! Too bad you got one of the ex-S7 A320neos and not a "real" ITA neo with the better cabins and streaming IFE. It's kind of a shame that it's a lottery as to which cabin you'll get on the neo.
Thanks for sharing!
Yeah, they're during a pretty good painting job, I think the number of unpainted planes is lowering to zero.
The S7 cabin is quite strange, such a pity I miss the "true" one
Thank you!
Ciao Carlo, thanks for sharing. A night and day difference from the XZ experience. It is sad that the salty/sweet offerings are gone from the service, but I guess saving 10s of euros every flight adds up. As Kevin pointed out, shame it wasn't the real A320neo with USB and Wi-Fi.
Was it an Alitalia livery?^^
Thanx! Definitely a glow up from my recent experience with Aeroitalia. I wont never betray AZ anymore ahaha
Yeah the snack is missing as the WiFi too. Hopefully in future they'll improve this part of the experience
Ahaha actually my tattoo is a 747 seen from above and without livery. Carrying my passion literaly on my skin :)