What to know when flying intra Europe’s low cost carriers: Palermo to Paris on Transavia
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 Palermo to Paris Orly -- on Transavia.
We flew from Palermo to Paris on a Thursday and there were only two options -- to Orly on Transavia again or on RyanAir to Paris Beauvais Airport -- which we didn’t really consider as this “Paris” airport is about two hours from Paris city center. I was once again surprised that Italy’s flagship carrier ITA did not have any direct options.
We only had about 18 hours in Paris once we landed so we wanted to maximize our time in the city versus commuting to the far away Beauvais Airport.
I eventually booked the flight on Transavia about two months prior to departure and it was our most expensive flight of the low cost carriers for this trip -- 75 euros in the base fare, plus 9 euros for a seat assignment in row 6 and 27 Euros to bring a carry-on roller board bag. Booking was straight forward on the Transavia website and we once again were able to get mobile boarding passes via the Transavia app.
We arrived at the Palermo Airport about 2 hours prior to departure, but sadly there is no Priority Pass lounge in Palermo. We enjoyed a glass of wine and a final Aperol Spritz while waiting for our boarding gate at the departure boards and eventually headed down to gate B1.
There were two lines again -- priority and regular boarding -- and we waited in the priority line for about 15 minutes before being able to scan our boarding passes.
From there we walked outside to the tarmac and waited about 15 minutes for a bus to pick us up and bring us to the gate.
We eventually boarded the Boeing 737-800. Seats were once again tight -- 29 inches of pitch -- less than most American carriers. The inflight power did work which let me charge my phone during the flight. Service was fine, and I was able to order a glass of red wine during the 2 hour flight.
We arrived on time at Paris Orly and were able to disembark via jet bridge where we grabbed an Uber to the city center.
Overall, if you know what to expect on the low cost European carriers -- a lot of waiting before actually getting on the aircraft -- it is an affordable way to travel between cities that lack high speed rail options.
Was it worth it?
Similar to our other low cost European carrier flights on this trip, there was lengthy waiting between boarding and actually getting on the plane.
Once on board, the crew was friendly and didn’t bypass us during beverage service. The flight was on time and while the cost was a bit more than the other flights we had, was probably the easiest of the three we took.
Given the limited options, this was a solid option.
3 out of 5.
