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Florence/Palermo Flights Suspended

Posted by (Los Angeles) on

I was quite disappointed to see that Meridiana Airlines has suspended its non-stop flights between Florence and Palermo effective October 1.

Meridiana continues its air service to Catania, and flights to Palermo continue out of Pisa Airport on both Windjet and Ryanair (the latter having fares as low as 11 Euros).

Travellers wishing to fly from Florence to Palermo are best advised to use Pisa Airport. Otherwise, Alitalia has connecting flights via Roma Fiumicino (but this option is much more expensive). Flying Meridiana into Catania would then require taking the hourly direct bus to Palermo from the Catania Airport, but that is a 2.5 hour bus trip, making it a less attractive travel option. There are also flights from Bologna to Palermo, but this is not as convenient (or as cheap) as flying out of Pisa.

Much slower options from Florence to Palermo include taking the direct overnight train (not particularly recommended), a morning train (connecting to the "Archimede" IC train at Roma Termini), or an early afternoon train to Naples, connecting to the overnight Tirrenia or SNAV car ferry.

I think that Florentines will miss this direct flight. It is unknown at present whether the service will be resumed next summer.

Posted by
425 posts

AN AFTERTHOUGHT:

For those of you who have LOTS of free time to spare, and who might contemplate taking the daylight trains from Florence to Palermo, here's how to save about 30 Euros:

Instead of buying the combination ticket based on information from the Trenitalia website (which shows a connection at Naples), buy TWO SEPARATE tickets for each leg, and make your connection at Roma Termini:

  1. Florence to Rome Termini ES train, 7-day advance purchase promotional fare (15% discount);

  2. Roma Termini to Palermo "Archimede" IC train, "AMICA" advance purchase promotional fare (20% discount);

Total fare for both trains is 83 Euros. Save yet another 20 Euros by taking the early morning unreserved, undiscountable regionale ("R") train from Florence to Rome instead of the ES train (you've REALLY got to love train travel to do this)!

However, if you plan in advance, you won't get a lower fare than by taking the plane out of Pisa (and this is by far the fastest option).

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