How Much Do Flights to Italy Cost? Rethinking Airfare

Airfare to Italy is often far less expensive than travelers expect. Depending on the time of year, departure city, and destination, transatlantic fares frequently match—or even undercut—the cost of domestic US flights. Flights to Rome from New York–area airports, for instance, can regularly be found in the range of $500–$600, sometimes less. It is not uncommon to pay more than that to fly within the United States.

When Flights to Italy Are Least Expensive

Several major factors shape ticket prices: time of year, departure airport, number and length of connections. August is the most expensive time to fly to Italy and one of the least rewarding times to be there, given the heat and crowds.

Apart from major holidays, much of the rest of the year you can find lower airfares—frequently a lot lower—particularly in the late fall, winter, and early spring. But Italy’s beautiful shoulder seasons—May and June, September and October—are generally very affordable. There will always be a bottom floor beyond which airfares will not fall, however, so at a certain point, twisting yourself into a schedule pretzel will not dramatically change your costs.

Taking a “Big Picture” Approach to Transatlantic Travel

But airfare expenses can be tackled in other ways. It is not simply a matter of finding the time of year with the least expensive Italy flights. You have to think about the trip as a whole. If your travel dates are fixed, costs can often be reduced by adjusting other variables—flying into one city and out of another, departing from a different US airport, or combining international and regional European carriers to reach smaller cities. Depending on where you’re going in Italy, flying into someplace like Perugia, as opposed to Rome, may bring you closer to your destination, with the added benefit of avoiding Italy’s busiest airport.

A Sample of Our Work

Recently, we developed a flight plan for a client who was nearby three Montana airports. They were traveling in August, and even if they adjusted their dates a bit, all the fares were coming in at over $1,500 for the worst quality seats and itinerary—two stops and 19 hours of travel. We found them tickets to Naples from Billings, Montana and back from Milan to Butte, Montana that were $400 less per person and a higher class of service. Each leg only had one connection.

If you’re driving yourself to the airport and parking a car there, this kind of itinerary will not work. But depending on other factors and costs, one-way rental cars might be a good solution. Because you don’t want your travel to turn into a Saturday Night Live skit about planes, trains, and automobiles, choosing one transatlantic travel plan over another takes careful consideration.

Balancing Cost and Comfort, and Keeping Your Sanity

Evaluating all the options requires time, and understanding the trade-offs requires experience and real knowledge of Italy. Booking a flight, for instance, that has you arriving in Naples and picking up a rental car during rush hour is a really bad idea. Whatever money you may have saved on the airfare, you will pay for with your sanity.

When we say that Italy Within Reach handles “airport strategy,” we mean that we build a flight plan for you that—door-to-door—balances all the different aspects of comfort, cost, and ease. While we work within each client’s budget, we do not develop travel plans that may be affordable in monetary terms but exact a high price in terms of your well-being.