Chunks of Parmesan cheese and mounds of salty prosciutto are piled alongside glasses of Campari sodas as the sounds of Milan’s cityscape hum around me. Sadly, however, the bounty I just described is still around 4,000 miles out of reach.
I’m in my apartment in Brooklyn, and the only thing separating me between my studio and Italy is an eight-hour flight on ITA Airways, which celebrated its first anniversary late last month.
What is ITA Airways and for that matter, how do you even pronounce it? When it comes to the latter, it’s similar to what one mostly does on a diet-obliterating trip to Italy: Eat-ah! ITA’s backstory, meanwhile, is an interesting one: Italy’s major airline was once the government-funded Alitalia, founded in 1946 and connected Italians with the outside world after World War II. However, Alitalia was privatized in 2009 and soon fell on hard times, which included strikes, layoffs and bankruptcy.
In October 2021, the state-owned ITA took over Alitalia. Since then, they’ve carried a reported 9 million passengers, but also experienced some agita. That includes the airline’s board recently stripping its chairman of power.
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Here’s what it was like to fly the Italian airline in its rookie year.
Booking
The prospect of flying on a newish Italian airline intrigued me. As I was searching for flights from JFK to Milan via Google, ITA popped up and I thought I’d test out one of the direct flights for my October trip. I also couldn’t ignore the reasonable prices with round-trips starting at $550, which is on the lower end compared to other flights to Milan’s Malpensa Airport. However, when I mentioned to some friends that I was flying on ITA, they weren’t optimistic about my flight. How smooth could things go on an airline in such flux?
I booked a round-trip ticket for $646 via Google Flights, but it wasn’t completely clear which class of ticket I purchased; my ticket and receipt just said “economy.” ITA has several types of economy — light (the most restrictive), classic, flex and premium, which advertises 40 percent more legroom and 120 degrees of reclining. There’s also business (long- and medium-haul) and superior.
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Like many other airlines, ITA has a range of economy seating options with fees; they start at $9 and go up to $140, depending on your fare class, route and seat selection. With economy light, travelers have to pay for any seat selection. My travel companion (my mom) and I paid $41 each way for our seats.
Whether I had to pay for baggage was confusing: My ticket receipt said one piece of baggage was included, but I later paid $70. I fear I may have paid for an extra check bag vs. my one checked bag.
Checking in
Twenty four hours before my trip, I downloaded ITA’s app to check in. The app is more limited than big U.S. airlines; there are no options for notifications on flight statuses and baggage loading.
We arrived at JFK Airport, found ITA’s home at Terminal 1 and checked our bags. We paid for them, but it’s still murky if we even had to.
We headed to the gate and saw our crew and pilots walking past the check-in desk. We observe the check-in attendant animatedly gesticulating while on the phone and saying, “No?! Really?” We brace for the worst.
The destination on the gate’s overhead screens inexplicably switches from Milan to Rome, and while the Eternal City is indeed lovely, it’s not where we are going. The pilot then exits the plane and confers with the check-in attendants. Then, as if it’s a scene out of “Home Alone 2,” he and the crew start sprinting down the terminal with the plane’s passengers following quickly behind. We join them, and it all amounts to an ITA parade through JFK to our newly appointed gate.
Boarding begins swiftly as we barrel onto the A330 for our 8:55 p.m. departure. As I walked through the spacious business class, it looked comfortable, with individual leather seats that recline and evenly spread out. Economy seats were decidedly smaller and more cramped, but pleasant. Our redeye tonight is only a little more than half full with only the window-side two-seaters occupied and the large swaths of seats in the middle empty. Passengers are given a neck pillow and a cozy blanket — so fluffy, in fact, that my mom wound up taking hers home.
WiFi was not included free, but multiple tiers are available for purchase. This included a plan as low as $2 for 10mb for texting all the way up to $20 for 200mb. My mom purchased the 50mb tier for $6, but it never wound up loading on her iPad, and she had no luck getting in touch with customer service to get her money back.
The food
Around an hour or so after takeoff, drinks and food service starts. “Would you like meat or pasta?” we’re asked. I choose the meat, and my mom chooses the pasta, which we’re told is a lasagna.
My meat is some sort of beef stew, served with a side of cold green beans topped with a slice of ham and a roll that seemed pretty stale. The “lasagna,” however, on this distinctly Italian flight does not seem like lasagna at all, but rather a Greek spanakopita. Though to be fair, the spanakopita is indeed a layered dish filled with cheese.
Drinks include beer (Peroni, of course) or wine; and coffee or English breakfast tea. There’s another drinks service shortly before touchdown. Another drink and snack service came shortly before landing, and I gulped down an English breakfast tea along with a warm sort-of panzerotti, dough pocket filled with ricotta.
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We arrive at Milan’s Malpensa slightly ahead of our scheduled 11:05 a.m. arrival, disembarking on the runway and taking a bus from our plane to the gate where we pass through customs in record time.
The verdict
Our top-to-bottom experience on ITA was a mixed bag, but certainly not a travel nightmare. Our flight was relatively smooth, left on time and arrived early. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t go out of my way for another ITA flight. The WiFi and entertainment system was spotty; information on fees on their website was murky; and their app was minimalist.
But if I was on a tight budget and ITA listed the best price for a flight to Italy, I’d cautiously take the journey but not expect much. At the very least, lightly booked flights are always a plus.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some Parmesan and Campari to find.
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