We organised a private transfer from our hotel in Taormina to the airport. Sometimes I think they schedule these things to fit with their diaries not ours and as a result we arrived at the airport 3 hours prior to departure but checkin didn't open for another hour.

A complicated swapping of agents between desks and an elderly passenger with dementia didn't help speed up things once they opened check in either. Then there was a long line at security which in total meany it took us one hour from the start of the check in process until we arrived at the gate.

Boarding started at 0910 with the same poorly organised bus to plane transfer discussed before. I certainly don't know the value of priority boarding in these sort of arrangements and I definitely don't understand the economics of it all. It seems that discount airlines (like Air One in this case) use buses, but full service airlines use jetways. It would seem to me that jetway connections should be cheaper as there is no need for the buses and boarding etc would be quicker. I'd be interested to hear from somebody who knows how this all works.



On board it was grubby like the last flight, seat pocket contents were random and I score a free prize of a dirty tissue in mine! There was a long wait while they waited for a missing passenger (I presume the guy with dementia) so I got to admire the lack of leg room. It's got to be the most cramped of any flight I've ever taken.



We started taxiing just before 10:00 with take off at 10:08.

The best part of the flight were great views of Catania, Taormina and volcanic islands. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

















and shortly before landing at Milano Malpensa.



We landed at 11:45, just a few minutes late then bus to gate and we were on the Malpensa Express train with tickets and luggage at 12:27.

This train is still the best way in to town. We went further up to Lake Como, but a ticket to Milano Centrale is just 10 Euro.