Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Naples

  • Naples Airport – VIP Lounge Caruso

    The entrance to the only lounge at Naples Airport, which is used by both Priority Pass and the airlines for their status customers. It’s located airside, near to gate C17 and access is limited to three hours (although I’m not sure that’s actually enforced).

    The interior of the lounge, which is spacious and has a modern design. I would note that I took these photos when there was a gap in custom, as when I entered the lounge it was nearly full. I found a seat at a high table which was comfortable, but it didn’t allow me to charge my devices. Fortunately a group then left and I was able to move to seating which had power points near to it.

    The food selection was a variety of cold items, such as pasta, salad, doughnuts, pastries, meats and vegetables. The quality was decent and I went through quite a lot of the pasta. They also had doughnuts and custard pastries which were equally delicious. The food offering seemed reasonable to me given the size of the lounge and it was kept topped up.

    The drinks selection was generous, this is the soft drinks section and there were fruit juices on the lower shelves in the fridge. There were wines and spirits on free pour, although customers have to ask staff for beer and coffee. On which point, all of the staff seemed friendly and helpful, with the atmosphere in the lounge feeling calm and relaxed.

    I was pleased, given that my flight departed at just before 23:00 to discover that the lounge closes at 22:00 and not the 21:00 which is advertised. Perhaps this is to cater for the British Airways flight, as a good chunk of customers in the lounge were from BA.

    The lounge was clean and organised, with the staff members coming to collect plates and glasses on a regular basis. There are toilets within the lounge so customers don’t need to return to the terminal and there’s a selection of newspapers and magazines.

    I was surprised at how many customers came in to pay for entry via their credit card, as it’s €25 per person, with one couple paying for just one hour’s access. It seems marginal to me whether this is worthwhile, although I suppose it works out for anyone who wants a few glasses of wine, as that wouldn’t be cheap in the nearby airport restaurants and bars.

    All in all, this was a perfectly acceptable lounge, although it does feel too small for the number of customers it’s serving. The food was fine, but there do perhaps need to be more power points and also information for customers about which products they have to ask staff to get for them. But, it’s calm and peaceful which is always a useful feature for a lounge.

  • Flights – Naples to Gatwick South (British Airways)

    This is the last British Airways flight of the day from Naples to Gatwick Airport, which had only a light load with around 50% of seats taken. The aircraft was an A320, flight registration G-GATN, with this being another purchase by BA in 2015 to bolster their Gatwick fleet. The aircraft had previously belonged to TAM Airlines, a Brazilian airline, for just over a decade.

    The boarding arrangements were a little ridiculous, as although customers were called through by their group number this just meant that they got to stand outside for longer waiting for the bus to the aircraft. The bus was over-filled so it managed to be an uncomfortable journey for many customers, although I had fortunately found myself a seat for the brief transfer. Priority customers were mainly then on the wrong side of the bus when it disembarked, which I noted upset a couple of people.

    I had an emergency exit row seat and had all three of the seats to myself, which was marvellous. The crew were friendly and a little informal for British Airways, but that’s something I think works, airlines can be too serious otherwise. I couldn’t see clearly into the Club Europe cabin, but it looked as though the eight rows were occupied by the grand total of one customer.

    The crew took orders for food and drink via their tablet and hand-delivered them, rather than traipsing the trolley through the cabin. I liked this service style as it meant that there was less disturbance, and it wasn’t a slow process as not many customers purchased anything. The aircraft cabin remained dark for the flight so that customers could sleep, indeed it was so dark that I struggled slightly to find my seat again after visiting the washroom.

    The flight arrived into Gatwick a little early and the pilot made the appropriate announcements in what felt like a friendly tone. I’ll mark this down as yet another smooth and comfortable flight from British Airways, it’s making it hard for me to be tempted back to Wizz Air and Ryanair….

  • Naples – On fire…..

    Unfortunately, it’s clear Naples has a problem with vandalism and fire. I’ve seen several bins on fire over the last day, this one was by the city’s main railway station and had just been put out and was still smouldering.

  • Naples – Chinotto

    In Malta there’s an interesting drink called Kinnie, which is quite an acquired taste. This is San Pellegrino’s not entirely different drink, it’s not unpleasant….

  • Flights – Gatwick South to Naples (British Airways)

    This is G-GATM, the British Airways Airbus A320-200 aircraft which was flying from London Gatwick to Naples. Interestingly (well I think), this aircraft initially belonged to ACES Colombia and was operated by them in South America. They went bust in early 2004, just a year after they acquired the aircraft, and Wizz Air took it on as part of their initial fleet of planes. It remained in the Wizz Air fleet until December 2014 and it was repainted and came into use by British Airways in January 2015 as part of their new second-hand fleet to be used at Gatwick on short-haul operations.

    The boarding gate was spacious with plenty of seating and the screens were clear. The boarding process worked well and customers queued where BA wanted them to.

    On board, the flight was relatively full, although the seat next to me was left unfilled. These are exit row seats so they were spacious and the crew member reminded occupants of their responsibilities in the event of any incidents during the flight.

    There was a queue of aircraft waiting to take off, including easyJet and BA planes.

    Another BA aircraft joining us in the queue for take-off, which didn’t seem to take an overly long amount of time. Our flight ultimately actually arrived a few minutes early into Naples and it was a smooth journey with no turbulence of note.

    These look like clouds at first sight, but it’s the Alps. The captain made an announcement telling customers on the right hand side of the aircraft to look out, and as luck would have it, that was where I was sitting.

    Shortly before landing.

    Naples Airport is one of those where customers are shuttled to the terminal by bus transfer. There were two buses which left promptly and weren’t over-filled. I was slightly concerned when I saw that there were literally hundreds of people at the immigration desks, so I was anticipating a long wait. Fortunately those with passports were despatched to automated kiosks and so my wait transpired to be under three minutes from entering the terminal to leaving it.

    Overall, another smooth and successful journey with British Airways, who seem to me to be delivering some consistently impressive flights. The flight cost around £32 as a single fare in what is a crowded market as Ryanair, Wizz Air and easyJet all operate to Naples, along with numerous other international carriers.

  • Naples – Streets

    Just a few photos of streets in Naples, with the city being surprisingly busy with tour groups.