Review of ITA Airways flight from Rome to Milan in Economy

INTRODUCTION

Hello everyone, happy 2026!
After a 2025 full of flights is time to make the new year equally in the air

While I was in Rome in the first weekend of November my family and I started to discuss about a family trip the following January
My father wanted to bring my sister and I to Maldives since he had been there twice (the last with mom on January 2025)
However, even if the scenario seemed amazing, both my sister and I would have had some difficulties getting a week off with a short notice

One week before this discussion the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza finally opened. Being my sister and I quite interested in Egyptian history we launch the idea for a long weekend in Cairo

After finding good dates for everyone, happening to be from Thursday 29th January to Sunday 1st February, we searched for the flights
For my family, a convenient flight was with WizzAir flying from Rome-FCO to Giza Sphinx-SPX
I immediately dropped off the idea of a direct flight from Milan since they had bad time scheduled and all departed from MXP
The best solution for me was flying from Milan-LIN through FCO with ITA Airways

Since the time schedule for my parents return flight was not feasible with mine (their flight departed quite earlier than mine, forcing me to stay alone on Sunday) they ended up choosing to fly with ITA Airways from FCO
Even if the solution was more expensive, it erase the risk of being on different inbound flights

We booked the flights on the 17th November
The whole stuff costed us around 400 euros per person

ROUTING

Some stats:
4th flight of 2026 (as of February)

Overall great-circle distance flown in 2026 (as of the reported flight): 5.244 km|2.832 nm

10th time on FCO-LIN route

THE FLIGHT

I disembark (on delay) from Cairo at 21:13
The flight to Milan was departing at 22:00

The security check-point for transfer passengers was empty, I cleared it in no-time

Walking (very quickly) through boarding area E
The airport looked like it was falling asleep

The passport control area for connecting passengers was pretty new, I think it opened less than two years before
Being equipped with many e-Gates the inspection was a breeze

Making my way to gate A47, at the far end of pier A31-52

I got at the gate at 21:27, fourteen minutes after stepping of the plane from Cairo
The entire walk was, according to my health app, around 1.3 km

The gate was still closed fortunately

It opened two minutes after

When I got at the counter I asked the lady if the short connection had consequences on the checked bag
She told me no issues were reported and not to be worried

Once on the jetway, it came the surprise…

ITA Airways A320 EI-EIB
First flight on 16th March 2010 (15.9 years old at the moment of the flight)
Delivered to Alitalia the same month and now part of ITA Airways fleet
Equipped with 174 seats in C-Y mixed configuration
When ITA was founded it carried the "Born in 2021" special livery
In January 2026 it was equipped with Star Alliance livery

My friend who works for ITA as steward told me they're equipping the oldest planes with special liveries, waiting them to be phased out
One is the aforementioned EI-EIB, the other one is EI-DSY in Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics special livery

Luckily I was assigned the emergency exit seat

Doors were closed ten minutes before scheduled departure
The plane was full at 60%

At 22 we left the stand

Taking off ten minutes after

I was so tired I felt asleep immediately
I woke up as the plane was getting ready to land

At 23, ten minutes in advance on schedule, we touched down at Milano-Linate Airport

Taxi was pretty quick and disembark started soon
Leaving the plane ten minutes after touchdown

The airport was cold and totally asleep

This plane look so good, I really like Star Alliance livery
Curious to see if they will equip a wide-body with the same colors

At 23:15 we were dropped at the terminal
I immediately searched for my belt, not imaging what's gonna come…

Almost half a hour after reaching the terminal, I was alone with other three people around the belt
A Swissport agent approached us and asked "Are you all coming from Cairo?"
And I realized
The bag had missed the connection

Once at the counter, she explained that Cairo Airport handlers printed the wrong bag tag 
This result in the bag needing a manual scan at FCO and the short connection time wasn't enough to guarantee the bags to be loaded on 

She asked everyone of us if we wanted to recover the luggage at Linate or have it delivered at home
I choose the latter
The bag would be loaded on the first FCO-LIN flight the following morning, however it would have been sent to my house on Tuesday
The reason was couriers departs only in the morning for destinations outside Milan

The bag finally arrived at home on Wednesday morning
I tried asking ITA for a refund, however they replied it was not granted for the fact the late delivery was at home location

FLIGHT-RADAR

Departure from FCO

Arrival to LIN