Not Your Standard Leisure Airline! A Surprisingly Good Flight on a Neos Dreamliner: Rhodes to Verona
In spite of their status as Italy’s third largest airline, unless you happen to be an Italian holidaymaker, the chances are that Neos is a carrier that you may be rather unfamiliar with. With bases across Italy in Bologna, Milan, Rome and Verona, Neos operates a modest fleet of fourteen aircraft (as of September 2022) consisting of a mixture of Boeing 737-800s, Boeing 737 MAX 8s and Boeing 787-9s. From the aforementioned airports, the carrier operates to destinations in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America – primarily focusing on capturing the outbound Italian leisure market, whilst also operating charters to shuttle Costa Cruises passengers to and from their ships. To some Neos’ distinctive blue livery may be a little reminiscent of that of European giant TUI and indeed such aesthetic similarities are not without reason. Back in 2001, the carrier had come into existence as a joint venture between Italian travel company Alpitours and the TUI Group – an arrangement that had seen Neos adopt the distinctive sky blue colours of TUI albeit without the carrier’s logo. However, this arrangement was not to last for long and the two companies went their separate ways in 2004, with Alpitours taking full control of the carrier. Based in the UK and thus out of the reach of the carrier’s route network of mostly sunshine destinations, Neos is not a carrier that I had envisaged myself flying in 2022. Nevertheless, I did have some familiarity with the airline before my trip having seen their aircraft on rare occasions at British airports operating both football charters and substituting in for other airlines, whilst once in a while their Boeings could be seen cruising overhead on their way between Italy and Keflavík.
So how did I end up flying with Neos?
In mid-September 2022, I journeyed over to Greece for a nine-day holiday in Thessaloniki, Vourvourou and Rhodes. When planning this in early July, attempting to take the edge of the inevitable end-of-holiday blues, I searched for an interesting itinerary to get me back to the UK at the end of my trip. After some searching, I was led to Air Serbia, whose wet-leased Lumiwings Boeing 737-300 was scheduled to operate from Athens to Belgrade on my day of departure. Spending a night in Serbia, I would then head onwards to London Heathrow on an Air Serbia Airbus A320. Meanwhile, I enlisted the help of a tax-only ticket with Aegean from Rhodes to Athens, received as a result of my cancelled Olympic Air flight from Rhodes to Kastellorizo.
Whilst I had been lucky enough to fly on two Boeing 737 Classics in 2022 before this trip, I was still looking forward to flying on Lumiwings’ ex-Lufthansa Boeing 737-300 for the short hop between Greece and Serbia. However, with ten days to go until departure, I looked up my itinerary on Air Serbia’s website which revealed that the Boeing 737 had been exchanged for one of the airline’s bog-standard Airbus A319s. Seeing as my hotel near Belgrade Airport was refundable, as were my flights with Air Serbia given the fact that my flight from Belgrade to London had been rescheduled by over two hours, I was left with a dilemma – accept the equipment swap even though this would mean leaving my accommodation in Rhodes at around 0300, or search for another way back. Turning to the latter, I worked out that the cheapest way to fly back from Rhodes would involve heading to the Northern Italian city of Verona on a Neos Boeing 787-9, spending a few hours in the airport before then heading up to London Stansted on a Ryanair Boeing 737. Costing around £125, this turned out to be slightly cheaper than continuing on with my original plan and so I soon got to work booking the trip.
With those tickets sold on Neos’ website identical in price to those on online travel agencies, I decided to book directly with the carrier. This turned out to be a quick and easy process, and I was even able to select a ‘standard’ seat completely free of charge – opting for seat 29L in the rearmost row of the forward Economy cabin.
The Journey
Following a little over a week in Greece, before I knew it my holiday was coming to an end and I was soon to trade the country’s warm sunshine for the cold and drizzle of British autumn. Having started my trip in Thessaloniki, I ended this in Rhodes’ famous resort town of Faliraki, located on the island’s eastern coastline. Known for its alcohol-fuelled ‘lad’s holidays’, the town does not have the most fantastic reputation amongst many Brits and is often overlooked by those visiting the island. Whilst there are plenty of noisy bars on the town’s main strip, I ended up having a lovely peaceful stay in Faliraki and I will return at some point in the hopefully not-too-distant future. Whilst I could have easily stayed in the Greek sunshine for another week, the fact that I would leave Greece on a new airline and onboard a Dreamliner took the edge off my journey back to the UK a little!
Whilst seeing many visitors, surprisingly Faliraki lacks a direct bus connection to Rhodes Airport, located on the other side of the island. Thus, those needing to travel between the two must first take a bus into the city of Rhodes, before heading out on another to the airport. With two bus tickets required, this costs €6.20 and if timed perfectly, this bus saga should take a little over an hour. However, with my flight to Verona scheduled to depart at 1125 and with the first bus between Faliraki and Rhodes not set to commence its journey until after 0800, this would not be an option unless I was comfortable with cutting things particularly fine. Lacking the confidence to take this tight schedule and travelling with both a backpack and a small suitcase, I instead turned to airport transfer agent Sun Transfers. Whilst I had never used this company before my trip to Greece, I had ended up using them twice during this trip and had had positive experiences both times, leaving me no reason not to rely on them for getting to the airport that morning. Parting with just €6.60 for a shared shuttle service, a little over a day before departure I received an email advising that this would pick me up from outside a local supermarket near my accommodation at 0710 and that I should be there ten minutes prior to this time. Whilst convenient, unfortunately, this did dash my hopes of one last hotel breakfast (with this not commencing at my hotel until 0800) although little could be done about this!
Travelling on a Saturday, two days earlier I had taken a long day trip to Austria to sample a ride on European Air Charter’s McDonnell Douglas MD-82 service between Rhodes and Linz, and returned via Vienna and Athens at 0900 on Friday morning. Having had virtually no sleep during this trip, and on Friday, that night I went to bed early and woke up at 0600 on the day of my flight to Verona feeling refreshed. Commencing my day with a quick instant coffee, I packed the last of my things before having a quick shower. Heading out into the warm morning air at 0655, I popped into reception to drop off my key before heading to the local supermarket as instructed to wait for my shuttle to the airport.
Plonking myself down on a wall outside the closed supermarket, my ears pricked up with each minibus that drove by although 0710 came and went with none of these stopping to pick me up. However, still with plenty of time to spare and aware that the shuttle’s on time arrival was conditional on those picked up at any previous stops punctually meeting the shuttle, I was not too concerned. Fortunately, I was not to end up walking to the airport as at 0714 a minibus appeared and the friendly driver jumped out and placed my luggage in the boot before opening the sliding door enabling me to enter. Unlike my shuttle to Rhodes at the start of my MD-80 adventure, this time I would not be treated to my own private shuttle and instead joined a pair of couples. Once the driver had hopped back into the front, the minibus soon sped away down the quiet morning streets of Faliraki as the distinctive saxophone solo of Gerry Raferty’s Baker Street rang out through the bus’ speakers. This was part of the driver’s megamix of equally cheesy hits that included Ed Sheeran, Kylie Minogue and Simply Red. Thankfully for my ears, the ride to the airport did not last too long and involved just one intermediate stop to pick up another couple from a resort on the outskirts of Faliraki. After cutting across the rocky hills of the island, the blue Aegean waters off Rhodes’ western coastline appeared, with the Greek island of Symi and Turkey’s Datca Peninsula also visible. Out at sea, a large cruise ship, Silversea Cruises’ Silver Spirit, could be seen as it slowly edged towards Rhodes’ harbour. Around thirty minutes after picking me up, the end of Rhodes Airport’s runway appeared and a short time later the bus came to a halt directly outside the airport’s dated-looking terminal building.
Upon disembarking the minibus, I was greeted by scenes of organised chaos and general hustle and bustle as weary-eyed passengers ferried large suitcases from coaches and minibuses into the terminal. Not being in any particular rush, I decided to have a short walk along the edge of the terminal before heading inside to the terminal’s dated-looking yet clean and functional main check-in hall. As I had expected and given the cornucopia of flights heading off to destinations across Europe, plenty of queues could be seen leading up to many of the hall’s check-in desks, whilst a walk revealed the smaller and slightly more modern check-in hall to be equally chaotic and crowded. Seeing as I had checked in online and with no bags to drop off, once inside the terminal, I could have made a beeline for security. However, with experience informing me of long queues at all of the airside terminal’s eateries, I decided to pay a visit to one of the quieter cafés in the terminal. With three of these to choose from, all offering a similar range of overpriced refreshments, after a few moments of deliberation I headed to a café next to the terminal’s smaller check-in hall. After taking out a mortgage, I parted with almost €10 for a cappuccino and a cheese and ham pastry before doing some work and topping up my phone’s battery at one of the terminal’s very few plug sockets.
With three hours to go until the scheduled departure time of my flight, I decided to commence my journey to the airside portion of the terminal. Being my third time departing Rhodes Airport, despite the many passengers I was confident that this would be a quick and easy process. With the option to pass through either the main security checkpoint or the other checkpoint above the smaller check-in hall, I opted to make my way to the former. After heading up the escalators, my boarding pass was scanned and I joined a queue leading up to the checkpoints. Even though just half of the eight checkpoints available were in use, as I had hoped, I made it to one of these within the space of a few short minutes and passed through the check quickly and without any hassle.
Once through security, I trundled through the local branch of Hellenic Duty Free before arriving in the main airside portion of the terminal. As I had expected, given the number of passengers seen in the landside portion of the terminal, with a near-constant stream of departures that morning, the airside area was incredibly busy. Whilst far from the worst airport in the world, unless you are an aviation enthusiast content with watching the aircraft outside, Rhodes Airport’s airside area is not the most fantastic of places to spend a long wait. As with the landside area, this portion of the terminal is far from modern in its design and lacks any sort of memorable features – both in terms of its facilities and design. Briefly examining the former, several shops are offered in this part of the terminal alongside a grand total of five eateries (four cafés and a Burger King). As many expect in 2022, the airport features a complimentary wifi network which I found to work well throughout the terminal, although those needing to charge their devices would have been out of luck, with plug sockets being at a premium and many of these being positioned in awkward locations (designed of course for cleaners to use rather than passengers). Aside from this, given the busyness, there appeared to be a severe shortage of seating, with quite a few passengers seen sitting on the floor at many of the terminal’s gates. Finally, my last complaint involved the toilets, which I found to be disappointingly filthy – something that I have not found to be the case during my previous adventures in Rhodes Airport.
Despite all my grievances above, as an aviation enthusiast, I cannot fail to give credit to the airport for the provision of large windows that offer reasonable views of the apron and runway throughout much of the terminal. Whilst photographers may complain about the number of smudges on these, these proved to be a godsend for observing the regular stream of movements outside. As a UK-based aviation enthusiast, whilst Rhodes Airport is dominated by Europe’s holiday airlines – many of which can be seen at airports back home, the omnipresence of wet leasing during 2022’s peak summer travel season ensured that some interesting movements could be seen during my visits to Rhodes Airport. Upon glancing out over the apron following my arrival at the terminal, I caught sight of one particularly interesting visitor who was operated by one of the few European airlines I had yet to come across! This took the form of an old Airbus A320 painted in the rather dated-looking livery of Romanian ACMI specialist Star East Airline. Formed in 2016, the carrier operates one other aircraft alongside that Airbus, a vintage Boeing 737-400. That morning, their Airbus was visiting Rhodes on a rotation from Prague, operating on behalf of Czech leisure airline Smartwings. Other than this, a slightly more mundane all-white Airbus A321 operated by Latvian ACMI specialist SmartLynx could be seen, whilst two other aircraft could be seen across the apron pointing away from the terminal. One of these took the form of an Olympic Air Dash 8 100 operating the airline’s service to reportedly Greece’s most challenging airport, Kastellorizo (see my report of this flight here), as well as a luxurious Hyperion Aviation Bombardier Challenger 850 that soon jetted off for Turkey. That morning, other interesting movements came in the form of a European Air Charter MD-82 arriving from Linz – this being the same aircraft that I had flown two days earlier and a pair of old Boeing 737-400s operated by Copenhagen Air Taxi’s Airseven brand.
At 0925, the first of Neos’ two morning flights from Italy could be seen pulling into a stand away from the terminal. This took the form of one of the airline’s Boeing 737 MAX 8s, with this having arrived from Rome Fiumicino and set to head off to the city of Rimini, located on Italy’s Adriatic coastline. Around twenty minutes later, I watched as one of Neos’ sleek-looking Dreamliners touched down on Rhodes, becoming the largest aircraft on the island and one of two Boeing 787s to visit that day (the other being an evening Neos flight on a rotation from Milan). This aircraft came in the form of the ‘Spirit of Italy’, both Italy and Neos’ first Dreamliner, Boeing 787-9 EI-NEO. Whilst enjoying the legendary status of being the oldest Dreamliner in Italy, this aircraft was not particularly old having been assembled in Everett and taking to the skies for the first time in November 2017. Following extensive testing, the aircraft was ferried across North America and the Atlantic, arriving at its new Italian home in December 2017 to much celebration. Although this joy was perhaps not shared by the country’s Boeing 767 enthusiasts, with the arrival of the Dreamliner marking the beginning of the end for Neos’ Boeing 767-300 operations, the aircraft the Dreamliner was to replace. Since then Neos has deployed the aircraft on a diverse variety of charter and scheduled flights across the world, deployed on everything from short domestic hops to long transatlantic slogs. In the week before my flight, Neos had dispatched this particular Dreamliner to Cancun, Catania, Havana, Marsa Alam, Mahon, Rhodes, Rome Fiumicino, Sharm el-Sheikh, Verona and Zanzibar. Once off the runway, the Dreamliner began its short taxi over to Stand 1 where it pulled up next to European Air Charter’s Linz-bound McDonnell Douglas MD-82.
According to my boarding pass, boarding was set to commence at 1055. Whilst airlines often exaggerate their boarding times to ensure passengers make it to the gate in good time, given the capacity of the Boeing 787 and the fact that all passengers would have to be shuttled out to the airport by bus, I was somewhat sceptical that boarding would indeed commence this late. That morning boarding would be undertaken through gate 18 at the end of the terminal, appropriately located next to the terminal’s only Italian-inspired eatery, Bistro del Cavalieri. Opting to head to the gate an hour ahead of departure, at this time two Skyserv agents could already be seen manning the gate podium and just a few minutes after my arrival, priority passengers were invited to board. At this point, a large queue began to form and believing that not all in this could be priority passengers, I joined this. Following a few minutes of shuffling forward, a relatively friendly staff member checked my passport and scanned my boarding pass, ensuring the names matched up before I was permitted to head outside. As has been the case with each flight that I have taken from Rhodes, I ended up waiting in a crowd on the ramp leading to the apron as passengers were not yet permitted to board the waiting bus. Whilst some may have taken issue with this, with the morning sunshine proving to be pleasantly warm but not overly hot and able to watch the comings and goings of aircraft from a vantage point slightly better than the terminal, I did not have any reason to complain. As I waited, the Skyserv agent responsible for supervising those waiting seemed to have their work cut out shouting at those who attempted to light up a cigarette to pass the time, with at least three passengers attempting to do so!
Following around ten minutes of waiting, passengers were permitted to head onto the old airport bus that would shuttle Verona-bound passengers out to the Dreamliner. By this time, with a large gaggle of passengers having formed, once the bus doors opened there was somewhat of a stampede as passengers hurried onto the bus as if holding the belief that this would be the only bus shuttling passengers out to the aircraft. Thus, once the doors had been opened, the bus ended up full within a couple of minutes and soon the doors were closed before the bus began its journey to the aircraft. Unlike the long bus rides that some may be used to at the world’s major airports, whilst we were required to head to the far end of the ramp, the small size of Rhodes Airport meant that we pulled up to the Dreamliner after around two minutes of slowly trundling past the tails of the waiting airliners parked outside the terminal building.
Coming to a halt near the port wingtip of the glistening Dreamliner, after a minute of waiting the driver received a thumbs up from one of the flight attendants at which point the doors opened and passengers flooded the apron. That morning airstairs had been positioned up to both the L2 and L4 doors and given my position near the rear of the Dreamliner’s Economy cabin, my seat was roughly equidistant between the two entrances. Hoping to snap some photographs of one of the aircraft’s gigantic engines before entering the Dreamliner, I decided to head up the forwardmost airstairs. Once photographed out, soaking up my final rays of Greek sunshine and admiring the views, I slowly climbed up the airstairs and following a short wait, I stepped into the galley that separates the small forward Economy cabin from the middle cabin. As soon as I entered the jet, I received a friendly ‘buongiorno’ from not one, but two smartly dressed flight attendants, one of whom held a basket containing Neos branded packets containing antibacterial gel.
Upon boarding, to my left, I caught a glimpse of the Dreamliner’s small Premium cabin beyond the forward Economy section with this being home to 28 seats arranged in a 2-3-2 configuration. These seats take the form of large recliners rather than lie-flat suites, similar in style (perhaps even the same seat) as those that can be found on other low cost and leisure Dreamliners such as those of Norse Atlantic Airways, Scoot and TUI Airways. After passing through the galley, I turned right and journeyed down the second aisle towards the rear of the middle Economy cabin. Despite Neos’ status as a leisure airline, the carrier has opted to configure the Economy seats on their Dreamliners in a more spacious 3-3-3 layout, as opposed to the more squished 3-4-3 configuration deployed by several full-service airlines. Onboard, each Economy seat is covered in light grey pleather and topped with a dark blue adjustable headrest with light blue sides. These are identical in aesthetic to the seats onboard Neos’ Boeing 737 MAX fleet (although a different seat type).
Those jetting off to far-flung destinations will be glad to hear that the rear of each seat is complete with a personal television screen, with the content of this provided by Irish company Inflight Dublin. Upon boarding, the inflight entertainment system was locked, displaying an air-to-air photograph of a Neos Dreamliner and a welcome message in Chinese, English and Italian, the addition of Chinese being explained by Neos’ pre-COVID operations to Guiyang, Nanchang, Nanjing and Tianjin. Below these, a USB-A port could be found which I later tested and found to work without issue.
As I trundled down the cabin, it soon became evident that I was to be presented with every enthusiast’s worst nightmare – a windowless window seat! Not only this but with two seatmates already strapped in for the flight, it was looking likely that I would end up having to get them to move out of the way to let me in. Whilst many Dreamliner operators squeeze in a bank of four toilets in the space between their middle and rearmost cabins, Neos instead opted for two toilets in the middle and seats on either side, allowing them to squeeze in at least an additional six seats where the two toilets would usually be. This ultimately resulted in an additional windowless row.
With passengers making their way down the cabin to a soundtrack of upbeat music, soon all from the first bus had made it onto the Dreamliner and with all three seats in the row ahead remaining vacant, I decided to settle in one of these and feign ignorance if a passenger arrived. Having arrived on the first of four buses that would shuttle passengers to the aircraft, I was not particularly confident that the seat would remain empty, and indeed, a trio of passengers came to occupy these. At this time, the nearby flight attendant noticed that I had stood up from my seat and, wishing to help, they thus approached me and requested to see my boarding pass, pointing out my original seat.
With few remaining options, my two neighbours stood up to allow me in and I soon settled in for the flight to Northern Italy. Upon sitting down, my first impressions of the seat were very positive. I found this to be soft and comfortable whilst offering a good amount of legroom – with this being the most comfortable aircraft seat I had had the pleasure of flying in on my trip to Greece. Furthermore, the area around this was clean and tidy, and except for a few pen scribblings and well-ingrained dirt, this appeared to be in good condition. Turning to the seatback pocket, this contained a plastic wallet in which a safety card and a Neos branded sick bag could be found, although this lacked any sort of inflight magazine. As time passed, passengers continued to stream onto the aircraft and at 1115 those from the final bus arrived. That morning, the flight was to be around 80% full, with most of my fellow passengers taking the form of Italian holidaymakers returning home after a break in Greece.
Once boarding had been completed, at 1118 a pre-recorded announcement rang out first in Italian and then again in English with a very slight Scottish lilt which replaced the traditional Purser’s welcome and contained the usual warnings regarding usage of electronic devices, seatbelts and smoking. On this note, announcements from the cabin crew were surprisingly absent throughout the flight. A short time later, a flight attendant could be seen closing the door up ahead and soon the Captain’s voice filled the cabin as they performed their long pre-departure announcement. This included a welcome and word of thanks for flying with Neos, a mention of our flight time and the weather both en route and in Verona, ending this with the news that whilst all was set for our departure, air traffic control had pushed back our takeoff time to 1150.
Following the Captain’s announcement, the personal television screens went dark for a few moments before Neos’ animated Boeing 787 safety video was broadcast. This lasted several minutes and was importantly accompanied by English and Italian subtitles and a sign language interpreter. After this came to an end, the crew passed through the cabin undertaking their final checks and at 1134 the aircraft could be felt being pushed back away from its stand. As this journeyed rearwards, the two large Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines spooled up with plenty of whirring, whining and vibration. Once the tug had been disconnected, at 1142 the Dreamliner began its short taxi to the end of Runway 24, passing the terminal before coming to a halt to allow two Danish Boeing 737s to touch down at the end of their flights from Scandinavia. The first of these took the form of a JetTime Boeing 737-700 arriving from the Swedish city of Norrkoping, whilst the second was an Airseven Boeing 737-400 arriving from Billund.
Once the Boeing 737 Classic was safely back on the ground, ‘Moonflower 6145 Heavy’ was cleared to head onto the runway before coming to a halt for a few moments whilst the Airseven jet vacated up ahead. At 1151, the two engines quietly spooled up as we began our long and gentle take-off roll before heading upwards into the sunny Greek skies. After leaving Rhodes Airport behind, the Dreamliner banked and flew northwestwards over the Aegean Sea, passing the many islands that sit between Rhodes and the mainland.
As soon as the seatbelt signs were turned off, the inflight entertainment system became functional and transformed into a screen where Neos’ logo could be seen superimposed onto a calming beach scene. With nothing to see from my windowless seat as the aircraft climbed over the blue waters of the Aegean Sea, at this time I decided to get to work exploring the inflight entertainment system. This is available in five languages that are broadly representative of Neos’ destinations across the world – Chinese, English, French, Italian and Spanish. Once I had selected English, I was then taken to the main menu page where I was presented with eight different self-explanatory menu options: watch, listen, play, kids, bar, shopping, maps and Neos. Opting to start by examining the selection of watchable content, at the time of my flight I counted an impressive total of 72 films loaded onto Neos’ inflight entertainment system. As is often the case, the majority of these took the form of Hollywood hits both new and old. However, a selection of films from across the world could also be watched – namely six Chinese language films, three in Arabic, two films from India and one from Israel. Slightly surprisingly, I failed to spot any films from Italy whilst the system also lacked any television programmes. In addition to films, a selection of short videos highlighting the various strands of Neos’ operations and the manufacture of their first Boeing 787 (the aircraft I was flying on) were also offered. Whilst I had no intention of watching anything, I should mention that no headphones were provided although I later spotted some in an overhead locker which I presume were available upon request. Nevertheless, testing the system I did start a film which revealed that unlike on many airlines, no advertisements were played before the start of this.
Alongside the plethora of films on offer, examining the other sections eight music playlists and fourteen games could also be found on the system. Meanwhile, the ‘Neos’ page featured an interesting and comprehensive overview of the airline, its history, operations, destinations and fleet – with the latter even including a list of each aircraft by their registration and name. Moving along, I found that both the ‘bar’ and ‘shopping’ options were not available – perhaps due to the short intra-EU nature of the flight. Finally, ending my review of the system, I found this to be simply laid out and easy to use, quick to load and responsive when touched. In addition to this, an onboard wifi network was offered although I was unable to connect to this for the duration of my flight.
Having trawled through Neos’ website before my flight, I noticed that the onboard catering page opens with the line ‘Neos wants you to fly with taste. This is why they have prepared a menu inspired by refined Italian tradition, special in every way: from the recipes to the presentation’. However, given the fact that my flight to Verona pales in length compared to Neos’ long haul services, and taking into account the carrier’s firm status as a holiday airline, I had assumed that the onboard offering would be light, limited to no more than a soft drink in a paper cup and perhaps a small bag of crackers, crisps or similar snacks. Around thirty minutes after rocketing away from Rhodes, an army of flight attendants armed with trolleys took to the aisles and began to serve passengers. As one crew member appeared on the horizon several rows ahead, my eyes lit up as I witnessed a tray being passed to a passenger indicating that the lunchtime offering would be far more substantial than I had first predicted.
Following several minutes spent eagerly waiting for lunch to arrive, a friendly flight attendant reached my row and cautiously passed a tray over to me, taking care not to tip this over my neighbours’ heads. Glancing over its content, this featured a trio of plastic containers – one containing a cold cut of smoked meat with a slice of cheese and several olives, another containing a green pesto grain salad and to top it off, the final container contained a chocolate hazelnut tart. Accompanying these dishes was a fresh unpackaged bread roll, a packet of round Italian breadsticks (taralli) and a 250ml bottle of water that hailed from the French Alps. To eat these, real metal cutlery was provided alongside a crystal glass featuring Neos’ logo! Once my neighbours had been handed their trays, I was asked for my choice of drink and opted for a pear juice which was poured into my crystal glass before being offered tea or coffee. Choosing the latter, this was then passed to me in a paper cup at which point my tray table was filled with the unexpected veritable delights. In terms of its presentation, this appeared to be something that would not look out of place in the business class cabin onboard a short flight with one of Europe’s full-service carriers. As was perhaps to be expected given Italy’s reputation as a culinary hub, importantly the food tasted as good as it looked and it appeared to be of a rather high quality – especially for Economy class inflight catering. I particularly enjoyed the tart as well as the coffee, with the latter being the best coffee that I have ever tasted in flight!
Once I had polished off lunch, I turned my attention to tracking the progress of my flight using the moving map feature of the inflight entertainment system, allowing for a variety of options and views for those looking to follow the flight. As we journeyed towards Italy, the aircraft bumped around a little although this was not significant enough for the pilots to reilluminate the seatbelt signs. With around 45 minutes to go until we arrived in Verona, I decided to pay a visit to one of the onboard lavatories. Seeing as it would allow me to scan the cabin in search of vacant rows where I could slip unnoticed into an empty window seat, I opted to head to the lavatories at the rear of the aircraft. Unfortunately, as I ventured to the rear of the aircraft, none could be seen and so I arrived at the lavatory defeated. Upon entering this, I was pleased to find this to be in a clean and tidy state, stocked with all the basics that you would hope to find in an aircraft lavatory. Following my quick trip, I decided to head through the middle and forward Economy cabins and eventually I was delighted to stumble across a vacant row, the rearmost in the forward Economy cabin. Settling down in Seat 8L, I was treated to a fantastic view of the mighty Rolls-Royce engine bouncing around as we flew through a patch of turbulence, as well as of the blue waters of the Adriatic Sea below.
Settling down in my new seat, I found this to offer a slightly better amount of legroom than my original seat, although this was still most definitely an Economy seat rather than a Premium one. Although this did seem to feature a few more marks and scratches than my original seat. Having flown parallel with the Italian coast for around thirty minutes, passing cities such as Lecce, Brindisi, Bari and Vieste, a short time after taking my new seat the aircraft turned slightly to fly towards the Pecaresi coastline and crossed this a short time later, with a good view offered of the region’s sandy beaches as well as the towns to the north of Pescara. After passing this, the land rose slightly and several rocky hills and mountains could be seen as we crossed over the region of Abruzzo before passing over a small portion of Marche, followed by Umbria. Of the hills below, the tallest of these spotted took the form of the 8,123-foot-high Monte Vettore located in the Mount Sibillini National Park.
Continuing onwards over Umbria, clouds soon arrived to take the view below and the aircraft banked to fly northwards before commencing its descent from 40,000 feet a short time later. Still with a fair way to go until Verona, the aircraft’s initial descent proved to be rather slow and the aircraft seemed to bank from left to right slightly, perhaps to avoid flying into the tall clouds that surrounded either side of the aircraft. A short time after commencing our descent, the aircraft passed over the city of Perugia before later passing Arezzo and Florence.
After passing Florence, the seatbelt sign was reilluminated just before the aircraft crossed into the skies of Emilia-Romagna and an overview of the city of Bologna. At this time, a pre-recorded announcement began to play informing passengers of turbulence, however, this was stopped moments later and the correct announcement regarding our descent soon rang out through the cabin. Whilst still with some distance to go until Verona, with tall clouds lingering just a short distance below the aircraft, likely predicting some turbulence as we passed through these the crew soon got to work ensuring that everything was in place for our arrival. Soon, the Dreamliner’s speed brakes were extended and the aircraft entered the clouds, bouncing around a little for several minutes as the jet neared Emilia-Romagna’s northern border with Lombardy.
Breaking through the clouds at an altitude of around 8,000 feet, below Lombardy’s green fields and the occasional town, namely Poggio Rusco and Mantua could be seen alongside the winding River Po to the north, with the aircraft roughly following its course for a minute or two. Whilst not suffering from a cold, during my last two days in Greece I had a slightly blocked sinus, resulting in my left nostril being blocked at times and runny at others. Having been fine for the duration of the flight, things suddenly took a turn for the worse as we descended through the last of the low-lying clouds when I suffered a bout of excruciating aerosinusitis. Whilst I have previously suffered from this during ascent when flying with a cold, this was my first time experiencing this as we sank towards the ground, with this manifesting itself in a severe stabbing pain just behind my left eye which was so painful it was debilitating for several moments causing uncontrolled tears to pour down from this eye. Fortunately, the worst of the pain went away after about a minute, however, I was left with a headache that continued for several hours.
Simply wanting to get back on the ground, I was pleased to see the flaps and landing gear lowered as the aircraft turned to line itself up for an approach to Verona Airport’s Runway 04. Once pointed in the direction of the runway, the Dreamliner crossed into the region of Veneto and soon passed the nearby town of Villafranca di Verona. Heading towards the airport, the Dreamliner flew parallel to the SS62 main road and soon, the four preserved aircraft at the local Museo Nicolis could be seen. At 1318, the Dreamliner made a soft touchdown in Italy following 2H27 in the skies of Europe. Once back on terrafirma, the aircraft decelerated rather quickly and the airport’s modest terminal came into view where several aircraft could be seen. At that time in the afternoon these two business jets – an Austrian-registered Cessna Citation CJ4 operated by Avcon jet and a larger Hungarian Cessna 650 Citation VI operated by JetStream. Meanwhile, just three airliners could be seen – a bright blue ITA Airways Airbus A320 taxiing out for its flight to Cagliari, alongside a parked Wizz Air Airbus A321neo and a Volotea Airbus A320 that had arrived from Catania and Olbia respectively.
Soon vacating the runway, the aircraft commenced its short taxi over to a remote stand during which another generic pre-recorded announcement rang out thanking passengers for flying with Neos and advising all to remain seated until the seatbelt signs had been extinguished. At 1321, sixteen minutes behind the flight’s scheduled arrival time, the Dreamliner pulled into Stand 51 near the airport’s large hangar at 1321, For some reason, once there the engines remained on for a couple of minutes before these were eventually shut down and two airstairs were positioned up to the Dreamliner’s L2 and L4 doors. Whilst I was in no major rush to leave the aircraft, with a fleet of buses already waiting, once the two engines had spooled down, disembarkation soon commenced and a short time later I retrieved my small suitcase from the overhead locker before making my way to the L2 door. Reaching the galley between the forward and middle Economy cabins in a matter of seconds, once there I was thanked by two cabin crew members, one of whom was holding a basket containing Ricola boiled sweets – a very nice final touch to what was a fantastic flight!
After stepping off the aircraft which would have three hours on the ground before heading off to the Egyptian holiday destination of Marsa Alam, I made my way down the long set of airstairs, taking plenty of photos before making my way onto one of the waiting buses. Being one of the last passengers to join the first bus, once onboard the doors soon slid closed and the short journey to the terminal commenced. Whilst I was set to head off on Ryanair’s 1700 service to London Stansted, whilst a new terminal is under construction, the current layout of Verona Airport ensures that airside connections are impossible. Expanding on this, the arrivals and departures terminals are separated – an arrangement that I have only ever seen at Odessa! Once off the bus, with no passport control needed, I stepped into the baggage collection hall before steaming through this and entering the cramped, dated and very busy landside arrivals area.
Whilst I will not write a full write-up of the next portion of my journey, I ended up being less than impressed with Verona Airport – finding this to be old, terribly overcrowded and dirty. Meanwhile, aside from being slightly delayed, my Ryanair flight back to London Stansted was simply average, although I was treated to views of the many government jets visiting Stansted for the Queen’s funeral which would occur a couple of days later.
Summary
Knowing Neos’ status as a leisure carrier and the comparatively low price I had paid for my ticket given the fact that I had bought this last minute, perhaps my expectations for the airline had been too low. Indeed, Neos exceeded these by far. Not only were the crew friendly, and the seats spacious and comfortable, the inflight meal was one of the best that I had ever been served onboard an intra-European service, with the metal cutlery and real glass making this feel as if it were a Business class meal. Meanwhile, for an intra-European flight, this was only exceeded in quantity by the meal that I had been served on Singapore Airlines’ flight from Copenhagen to Rome. It thus goes without saying that I would be delighted to fly onboard another Neos service at some point in the future whether it be a short, medium or long haul flight. That said, I will most definitely be steering clear or row 29 on their Dreamliners!
