Looks like I have created an uproar. Let me ask my question this way. Are there any NON STOP flights from the United States to Florence or Pisa? Meaning the flight leaves JKF, Newark, Atlanta, DC, etc makes it all the way to FLR or PSA without stopping in London, Paris, Madrid, Vienna, Frankfurt, etc.

No, there are not.

And to amplify - you would be able to fly Alitalia and change in an Italian city, so you can get close and train the rest of the way.

Good grief turbokid, if you think that the good advice you were given on your other post was an uproar you haven't seen anything, LOL.

That was far from an uproar - not even a squeak or a ripple.

LoveItaly, check Elizabet's question on the SF thread.

Hi Starrsville, believe it or not just about 5 minutes I clicked on the US Board & saw Elizabet had an additional post & clicked it on and about had a heart attack! Somehow I was worried that the school would give her info on hotels where she should never stay. Click back on to her post & see if what I posted was OK. I believe she will answer. But I should have asked her what her budget would allow hotel rate wise. Thanks!!!

I think USBeauty has given you the ONLY answer to a question that requires no advice but a simple yes or no.

Now that your question has been answered is there anything ELSE you need help with?

NO, I believe I am up to speed for help at this point. I feel educated and enlightened. Peace out!!!!

Air France is another option to Florence, with a change in Paris. Also try through London or Frankfurt.

hi turbokid... truly, if you call that an uproar you must be very new here on Fodors

The answer is your first reply, from usbeauty.

Especially for a place as small as Pisa I would definitely not expect to find a routing like that.

Shoot I have to make one transfer even to get to Geneva (from a major international airport west coast US).

I think turbokid is set, but international flights can only fly FROM international airports TO international airports.

If you want to get to a smaller town or region you are flying into a regional airport. That's why you have to make a connection or a stop on the way to smaller locales.

Uproar? I re-read that other thread and all I saw was friendly discussion regarding the differences between direct and non-stop flights. And I learned something from julie_colorado on that thread.

I didn't think there was an uproar on the "other" thread - - but I might stir up (a little) one here - - just out of curiosity, what purpose would it serve to know that there is a non-stop flight to Florence or Pisa... out of ATL - - if you live in Boston? or vice versa?

Or let me put it this way - - for a city that DOES have (new this summer) non-stop service from the US: Naples (Italy) - - from NYC...

...is it reasonable to think that travelers from WAS or BOS or CHI or PHL should route through NYC just because this flight exists (on a carrier that most likely will not offer "in-line" baggage transfer service)?

One-stop service - - by way of a Europe gateway - - makes more sense to me than flying domestic to a US gateway (like NYC) where a non-stop trans-atlantic flight exists.

This is highly relevant to a lot of travelers that live in airport markets like CLE or MCO or PHX or DFW - - where there might ne only one (or a few) non-stop trans-atlantic flights offered. It might be preferable (and certainly no LESS desirable, in many cases) to take the transatlantic non-stop to an available Europe gateway airport, leaving "direct" from your "home" airport - - and then connect onward once in Europe...

..rather than flying from your "home" airport to a bigger US hub, just so you can get a non-stop flight to a city like Nice, or Barcelona, or Warsaw or Athens or Lisbon.

Best wishes,

Rex

I'm not familiar with PSA, but there is a very good reason why there are no transatlantic flights to/from FLR: the runway isn't long enough! The runway at FLR is only about 5500 feet in length, which is much shorter than small cities in the US that are served by commuter airlines flying regional jets. 5500 feet isn't enough runway for a fully loaded B-767 or A-330 to take off in. A B-737 might be able to use 5500 feet effectively, but a flight that needs to cross the Atlantic Ocean can't. For contrast, most primary departure runways at major international airports (ATL, JFK, ORD, etc.) are 11,000 feet or more.

To fly to/from FLR will require a change at an intervening European airport...MXP, FCO, CDG, etc.

Good factual information tdyls...

While Europe is not short of land per se, the areas around its most popular (and centuries-old inhabited) cities certainly lack for the kind of space required for a big, international airport.

By contrast, there are a lot of airports, particular in smaller US (midwest) towns for example, with huge plots dedicated to airports of the present century and beyond. Rockford, Illinois may not have as many tourists in a year as Florence (Italy) does in a day...

... but they have no problem landing a 747 every few minutes, each night on their 10,000 feet runways - - enabling 1.3 <i>billion</i> pounds of UPS (and Airborne and BAX Global) cargo to land (annually), get sorted and move onward to the next point in their &quot;travels&quot;.