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Naples to Palermo on Volotea

A long process to get on our Volotea flight from Naples to Palermo Italy.

Since we flew La Compagnie to Paris, we needed to find our way to Naples and southern Italy. 

Which meant we needed a few flights:

• Paris to Naples

• Naples to Palermo, Sicily

• Palermo, Sicily to Paris

In this review, we will tell you about our trip from Naples to Palermo -- on Volotea. 

Similar to our flight on Transavia from Paris Orly to Naples, there were few direct options from Naples to Palermo. In fact, there were only two direct options -- on Volotea or EasyJet. I was surprised that ITA -- Italy’s flagship carrier -- did not have direct options from Naples to Palermo, but it appears ITA largely prioritizes their hubs in Rome and Milan. 

After looking at flights for a few months, we settled on Volotea -- ultimately because of cost -- it was 40 Euros for the base fare and then 15 Euros to book a seat and bring a carry-on roller board bag on board. Volotea is a Spanish flagged carrier and is run by the same team who founded Vueling. 

I booked on Volotea’s website and it was straightforward. Though it was interesting that Volotea emailed me PDF boarding passes immediately upon booking -- months before the flight departed. I printed them out the old fashioned way, but ultimately didn’t need them as I was able to use their mobile boarding pass via the Volotea app. 

We arrived at the Naples airport about 2 hours prior to departure and utilized the Pearl Lounge via Priority Pass at gate C17 -- which was convenient as we boarded a few gates down in the C terminal.

The Pearl Lounge was a solid option. It was pretty full on this Monday afternoon. They had good buffet food options including mini pizzas that were delicious, as well as self-serve water, sodas, juices, coffee, beer (Moretti) and red, white and sparkling wine. There did not appear to be any self-serve liquor. 

This lounge was interesting in that you checked in with an agent and your boarding pass as usual, but to exit the lounge you also needed to scan your boarding pass to open the gates. I also appreciated the European airport experience in being able to take the Moretti beer with me into the terminal while we awaited boarding. 

The boarding experience for Volotea was the worst of our low cost European carrier experiences on this trip. Similar to Transavia, we lined up in two lines at the gate -- priority and regular boarding. We waited here for about 15 minutes. 

We were then allowed through a door that led us outdoors onto a platform. We waited here for about 10 minutes. 

We were then let down the stairs of the platform to the tarmac where we waited another 15 minutes. Enough time to see this United Airlines flight bound from Naples to Newark. 

From there we waited for a bus, who drove us around the apron of the airport to our plane which was parked away from all the terminals. It was near other low cost carrier aircraft like RyanAir. 

Once on board this Airbus A320, we waited for a second bus to bring the remaining passengers. 

After about 40 minutes -- and well past our scheduled departure time -- the pilot came on the PA to let us know that they had the wrong paperwork for the flight and that updated paperwork needed to be driven to the plane before we could depart. 

So, for this 40 minute flight, we spent almost 3x time waiting and lining up for the flight than we did in the actual air.

The seat onboard was small, with limited legroom like Transavia. There was no in-seat power and there was no beverage service due to the short length of the flight. Volotea does allow you to preorder food and drink via the app prior to departure. So I do wonder if those fees are refunded if service does not happen on short flights like these. 

Upon arrival in Palermo, we walked into to the terminal where we were able to quickly get a taxi to head to our hotel. 

Was it worth it? 

This was the worst of our low cost European carrier flights on this trip. The flight was delayed more than an hour due to paperwork issues and the boarding process was a series of “line up and waits.”. The cost was affordable at around 55 euros inclusive of priority boarding, seat assignment and roller board. Given the limited options for direct flights to Palermo from Sicily, it got the job done. Albeit not smoothly. 

1.5 out of 5.