Trying to get to Catania for 2 weeks in July/August.

Flights are around $1,750 RT. This is the same whether you're leaving from JFK, ATL, MIA, ORD, etc.

Is this normal for this time of year? If this expensive, when does it go down? Don't want to wait too long to book!

Short answer: I fly back and forth from Catania all the time, and yes it can be relatively expensive almost always, but especially in "high season" of Summer. Last year and this year that seems about right for that timeframe.

My long ramblings:There is also an uptick in military traffic on the routes from NAS Sigonella eating up cheaper seats in advance.

The exception might be JFK. It tends to be a bit cheaper. I see some 1200 fares from JFK on Kayak 7-30 to 8-13. From everywhere else 17-18 hundred is normal. It is not much cheaper in winter sadly.


It is much harder booking on UA through Star since the merger with CO as UA has taken CTA (and PMO) off the route map. (Sorry, partial rant on my part.)

I often book into FCO or MXP if very cheap and fly a domestic flight down to CTA, but with Windjet gone that has gotten harder, and you are not protected on two seperate PNRs.

In terms of one stop connections, you can do BA via London but you have to swap between LHR and LGW. Star has two to three a week via MUC and one a week from FRA and BRU on SN seasonally. Air Berlin is an option.

Skyteam is easiest, of course.

You can always try with Kayak and look at some midweek departures with the three day search window on but I doubt you will see it come down much more.

Good luck!

Thanks for your help. It's taken me a whole week to get an answer as thorough as that. Seriously, I really appreciate it.

I've shaved Florida-CTA fares a bit by connecting through FRA, MUC or MXP and booking a connection either on EasyJet or on Alitalia via their Italian website. Don't know if the Alitalia website still offers better intra-European fares than their US site, but probably worth a look. Might also be worth looking at Alitalia all the way on the .it site.

alitalia just offered special usa-cta and pmo promo fares today. i got an email offer.

While Alitalia offers MIA-CTA as low as 1209 the prices in the summer appear to be stuck at around 1750 (see here http://www.alitalia.com/US_EN/special_offers/index.aspx )

I always book Alitalia on the Italian site, and it is almost always cheaper or at least the same price as the US one. There is more info on a thread in the Alitalia sub-forum.

Since WindJet died (RIP) fares have gone up even more.

Rumours of RyanAir at Comiso might bring down the costs at CTA, if Comiso ever opens to commecial traffic.

pricesquire, good luck. let us know if you have more questions.

Slawecki, did you get my PM in response to your e-mail?

We did CTA last October and it was a real PIA to get to at a reasonable time. We wound up flying BA... miles to LHR and then same day paid LGW-CTA. Agree that JAX-JFK/ATL-FCO/MXP on one ticket and then Alitalia from FCO or MXP is probably the best and cheapest option. Coming home, we bought a cheap one way CTA-FLR Alitalia ticket on cheaptickets.com.