Airline: ITA Airways
Flight #: AZ208
Route: FCO-LHR
Class: Economy
Seat: 23A
Date: Wednesday 11th January 2023
Having spent the morning exploring the Vatican City and Rome, I had jumped onboard the Leonardo Express to take me from Roma Termini to Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport (read about those here and here), ready to make the final leg of my trip, the flight from Rome to London with ITA Airways.
ITA Airways is Italy’s relatively new national airline, having commenced operations in October 2021 to replace the previous national airline, Alitalia, which had entered Administration. Controversially the vast majority of Alitalia’s assets and staff were transferred to ITA Airways and so, other than a brand, the airline is pretty much the same as it was before the change with just a slimmed down operation.
Check-in for ITA Airways appears to be split between Schengen and non-Schengen destinations, and as I’d arrived slightly too early I waited in the check-in hall for my flight to be displayed on the screens. Unfortunately, on heading to the advertised desks I found these closed, and so joined the queue for the closest open desk where thankfully I didn’t encounter any issues actually checking in.
Getting through security was possibly the best experience I’ve had of security and an airport, with it taking me longer to walk non-stop around the snaking queueing system than it did to actually pass through the security process. From there it was a bit of a walk to get to the E gates (the non-Schengen gates) which included passing through the maze of duty free twice, with the passport control sandwiched between.
When booking my ticket, I was offered the opportunity to purchase access to the ITA Airways lounge at Rome for €35 and so in the interests of ‘research’ I spent the extra money to try it out. Having passed through passport control, the signs towards the lounge are initially ok but then seem to disappear, so if you are heading to it just follow the signs for gates E11-24 and you’ll find it.
Unfortunately, there was a little bit of confusion in trying to access the lounge as nothing was noted on my boarding card regarding access and so initially the staff declined entry having looked at this. Thankfully, after a discussion and them actually scanning the boarding card, I successfully made it in and was able to find a quiet corner to settle in for the couple of hours I had before boarding.
The lounge is very calm and relaxing with plenty of comfortable armchairs to relax in as well as more standard tables and chairs close to the food area to enjoy some lunch at. The two downsides were that there were no windows in the lounge providing apron views and I couldn’t really find an area designed for working at, so rather than spotting or writing during my stay in the lounge I just relaxed and watched some videos on my phone.
The lounge did have a great choice of food with a cold buffet of meats, cheeses and sandwiches as well as having freshly cooked pizzas and pasta dishes available. Unfortunately, I missed trying out some of the pasta as when I returned to the food it had been taken away, I assume for the gap between the lunchtime and evening service. The food that I did have was excellent and clearly freshly made in the lounge’s kitchen which is open to the lounge so you can watch the chef working.
With departure time drawing close, I headed to gate E15 ready for boarding and where any sort of a queuing system had broken down. As such, when boarding began 25 minutes before departure, chaos reigned but I was eventually able to get onboard and find my seat for the journey, 23A. I did luck out on this flight as the middle seat remained empty when the wonderful words of ‘boarding complete’ were announced, giving me a bit of extra space for the 2-hour 20-minute flight back to England.
Pushing back at 1719, four minutes late, we taxied across the airport before taking off at 1730. Our aircraft for the flight was EI-DTJ, a 13-year-old Airbus A320-200 that has spent its entire career with ITA Airways and its predecessor. Interestingly, it looked like the economy seating onboard used to have IFE installed as the control panels remained in the armrests and the back of the seats had a blank panel where a screen would have been.
Shortly after departure I was surprised to find a free drink and snack being handed out. ITA Airways seems to be one of the few remaining ‘full-service’ airlines that do this and its especially rare since Covid. What makes it even more surprising is the financial difficulties faced by ITA Airways predecessor, and I’d have thought the free drink and snack would have been the first to go during any cost cutting. Nonetheless it was a welcome surprise.
Our route took us out over the Mediterranean before crossing back over the Italian coast close to Genoa. Entering Swiss airspace near the town of Zermatt about 50 minutes into the flight, we then passed over the French city of Dijon as we continued the journey north. Unfortunately, the further north we headed the more cloud there was and as we passed between Paris and Reims about 90 minutes into the flight, neither were visible from the aircraft.
The French coast meant the start of our decent and after some circling round Biggin Hill, we made a U-turn over Croydon to head over Bromley and Lewisham before starting our final approach over Southwark. Once again I’d picked the wrong side of the aircraft and so didn’t get any views of London’s famous cityscape, however I did get to see the colourful multi-coloured lights of Brixton and the illuminated expanse of Clapham Junction station and yard.
At 1845, 2 hours and 15 minutes after taking off, we landed on Heathrow airport’s runway 23R with a worryingly large number of passengers clapping the uneventful landing. ITA Airways use terminal 4 at Heathrow and so I was slightly concerned at how long our taxi to the other side of the airport would be, however we made quick progress crossing runway 27L and arrived on stand just 9 minutes after landing.
As with boarding, alighting the aircraft was a chaotic experience with everyone trying to enter the aisle at once (more so than I’m used to), however despite this I was somehow in baggage claim at 1905, just 20-minutes after landing and having completed all the passport control formalities.
In conclusion, I was really impressed with ITA Airways. Whilst the airline still carries a lot of its Alitalia history, it does seem to have made some progress in becoming more efficient and from a general passenger’s perspective, this was one of the least stressful flights I’ve had. Being able to pay to enter the lounge is always a great bonus and it was certainly a enjoyable way to spend the time prior to boarding.
Lounge 4*
Seat/Facilities 3*
Food 3*
Service 5*
Punctuality 5*
Overall Rating 20/25 (read about my rating system here!)
Flights & Times 