Lockdown is over and you are thinking of flying to Italy post Covid? If travelling from the UK we have all the need to know details.
Am I allowed to fly to Italy for a holiday?
Since 4th July, Italy has been exempt from the FCO advice against all non-essential international travel. This means entry to Italy from the UK is permitted and you no longer have to justify your reason for travelling, plus there is no need to self isolate upon arrival.
There is a self-declaration form that can be downloaded from the FCO website which is worth completing and having on you as border police are doing spot checks at Italian airports and may request the form.
The self-declaration form and latest up-to-date advice from the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office can be found by clicking here.
Where can we fly to Naples from?
We flew out of the UK from London Gatwick at the start of August with easyJet. At this time all London Airports including Gatwick, Heathrow, Stansted, Luton, London City and Southend had flights to Naples. Alitalia, British Airways, easyJet, KLM and Ryanair all had available routes operating out of one of the above airports.
What has changed at the airport?
Not too much. We flew out of Gatwick and all flights are operating out of the North Terminal at present. If looking for cheaper parking try booking the Gatwick Short-Stay Parking at the South Terminal and getting the shuttle train to the North Terminal, it only takes a couple of minutes.
Hand sanitisers are available throughout the airport. In order to manage social distancing both the security lanes and bag drops are spread out and many of your usual food and beverage outlets are shut. In Gatwick Starbucks and Wetherspoons are currently remaining open.
Face coverings are mandatory at the Airport and must be worth throughout the Airport and the flight itself. Make sure you have a comfortable one as you will be wearing these for around 4 hours in total.
What has changed on the flight?
Again, not too much. Priority boarding appears not to be in place for EasyJet at least. Instead once arriving at your gate staff check your boarding pass and passport and ask you to wait in the seating area before boarding. EasyJet were allowing around half of the customers to be checked into the seating area and would then begin boarding with rows 15-30 allowed on first followed by rows 1-14 before checking the other half of customers into the seating area and then onto the plane.
Once onboard you won’t find any magazines or bistro menus. The inflight bistro service is in operation and most items are available other than fresh food and hot beverages. Cash is not being accepted and contactless payments methods must be used. Click here for EasyJet’s current bistro menu.
What happens when you arrive in Naples?
As mentioned at the beginning of this post Italy has been exempt from the FCO advice against all non-essential international travel since 4th July. This means entry to Italy from the UK is permitted and you no longer have to justify your reason for travelling, plus there is no need to self isolate upon arrival.
There is a self-declaration form that can be downloaded from the FCO website which is worth completing and having on you as border police are doing spot checks at Italian airports and may request the form.
The self-declaration form and latest up-to-date advice from the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office can be found by clicking here.
Once arriving at Naples you are still met by the same bus (where social distancing is impossible….) to take you to the terminal. When we landed, at the start of August, there were no temperature checks being carried out and no passenger from our plane was asked for their self-declaration form although it looked like most travellers, like us, had it printed out and ready to show if required.
Summary
In summary, not too much has changed and certainly not enough to put us off flying. As long as you remain cautious and take the relevant precautions it really isn’t off-putting and once at the other end the sunshine and 30+ degrees weather makes it all worthwhile.
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