Sicily-plane from Rome to Catania
 

Hi- I'm in the midst of planning a trip with hubby to Sicily in May. I'm trying to co-ordinate my Alitalia flight arriving in Rome FCO at 7:20 am with flights to Catania. I'm looking at Wind Jet leaving at 8:50 am. Is that enough time to collect baggage and get to WindJet gate? Is it close enough to Alitalia? Will we need time to go thru customs, also? Have any of you flown on Windjet? Should I just pay the much more expensive flight via Alitalia to Catania to make things easier? I've been reading all the wonderful trip reports and am really looking forward to visiting Sicily. Thanks for any help!

If you choose an airline OTHER than Alitalia, allow yourself AT LEAST THREE HOURS connection time at Roma FCO, since Alitalia often arrives late.

If you choose an Alitalia connecting flight, and miss your connection, Alitalia will "protect" you by putting you on the next departing flight to Catania. This is NOT true if you don't fly Alitalia to Catania.

If you book a through ticket to Catania on Alitalia from your city of origin, you should find a very reasonable fare, although perhaps not as low as the fare on Windjet, Easy Jet or Blu-Express.

Concur with GAC. Last May our Alitalia flight was 2 hours late in taking off from U.S. Therefore we arrived Rome too late for our connecting flight to Catania. Since we booked through tickets to Catania on Alitalia, Alitalia put us on the next connecting flight without us sweat.

About a year ago we did a transit through Rome Fiumicino. The immigration lines for non-EU citizens were extremely long and slow moving. I would allow at least an hour. Though maybe the lines wouldn't be so bad at 7:30 AM.

That is, at least an hour for the immigration line.

Thankyou all so very much for your replies. I have taken your advice and we are now booked on Alitalia thru to Catania. It was not as expensive as I had thought.We are returning via Palermo, staying in Rome for a few days so will book Wind jet for that leg. Grazie!

Grammy, we are doing the exact opposite in March/April. Booked through to Palermo via FCO on Alitalia. I now need to buy tix out of Catania back to Rome where we are staying for a few days. Great minds, etc.

FWIW, we used Blu Express for Rome-Catania and got excellent fares. The flight was fine for the brief hop that it was. Do check all the discount airlines (e.g., the ones GAC listed) for the cheapest fares - and keep in mind that the really low-priced tix sell out quickly...

I just bought these same tickets through a Kayak partner named "Wegolo". It directed me straight to Air Italia. Through this I was able to save $300. Good Lead!