REVIEW | ITA Airways Business Class Rome to Brussels

March 2025. We’re embarking on a train trip to Sicily. We fly from Brussels Airport to Leonardo da Vinci Rome Fiumicino Airport with ITA Airways. Then we take an Intercity Notte sleeper train by Trenitalia from Roma Termini Railway Station across Italy to Syracuse. Yes, the train is loaded on a ferry to cross the Strait of Messina. After visiting Syracuse, Catania and Palermo, we return to Rome, and home. With 25,832 km², Sicily is only 20% smaller than Belgium (30,689 km²). Quite a lot in four days.

Contrary to our flight from Brussels to Rome on the exquisite A321neo, we would only have an old ex-Alitalia A320 for our flight back to Brussels.

Arriving at Fiumicino Airport we could immediately drop off our bags at the ITA Airways Sky Priority check-in desks in Terminal 1 and pass in no time through fast pass security. After doing some ‘tax free’ shopping we headed to the lounge.

About 10 minutes before boarding we headed to the gate, unfortunately a bus gate. Almost as soon as we arrived there, they started priority boarding and we were the first two to board. Unfortunately we had to wait in a hold room until a bus showed up. As soon as the bus showed up they filled it up completely negating any advantage of priority boarding.

The bus than drove us around the airport to our plane standing at the jetway at the International E gates, so we all got off the bus to climb the emergency stairs to the jetway to board the aircraft. Wouldn’t it have been more efficient to park the plane at a ‘European’ A gate and bus the arriving passengers straight to immigration?

Flight AZ 160
From Rome Fiumicino (FCO) 15:15 (15:32) to Brussels (BRU) 17:30 (17:19)
Flight Time 1 hours 48 minutes
Airbus A320-200 EI-DTB “Giuseppe e Carmine Abbagnale”
Delivered to Alitalia in march 2009, flying for ITA Airways since October 2021

Upon boarding we could see the typical European 3-3 configuration, with the middle seat left free in business class. The middle seat was covered with a small table so you could use it to put a drink on it. The seat itself was a simple slim-line seat with no extra bells and whistles, no power ports nothing. As I was in the front seat the tray table was stowed in the armrest.

We once again received a pre departure beverage with a choice of orange juice or water.

After take-off service started with the distribution of the meal trays after which we were asked what we wanted to drink. The meal was similar to what we had on the previous flight with a margarita pizza as a main. The salad this time contained smoked salmon, which was a smaller portion than the chicken. The dessert this time was a nice chocolate cake. On the tray was also the crunchy little chocolate, which last time was served separately, this time they distributed a different small chocolate separately.

They also didn’t serve a glass of limoncello after the meal this time.

All in all it was a typical intra European business class flight on the return. The crew also felt less enthusiastic than the other crew, going more through the motions. But ITA Airways Business still is a good product, hopefully the Lufthansa takeover won’t activate too much savings and service cut downs.