An Italian airline has announced that it will be putting the Apulian capital of Bari on the map with its first ever direct flight route from the United States. Starting in June, the Milan-based airline Neos will be offering weekly flights to Bari from New York’s JFK International Airport. “We think it is a good opportunity to develop tourism there,” explains Elisa Speziale, a sales manager with Neos who is promoting the new initiative at the New York Travel Adventure Show at the Jacob Javits Center this weekend. “The Puglia region and the tourist board are confident that nonstop flights would bring many tourists.”
Neos has been around for 24 years, and has operated in the United States since 2021. The airline is a part of Alpitour World, Italy’s biggest tourism company, which also includes five tour operating companies, a travel agency network, and two hotel brands: the all-inclusive club-style VOIHotels, and the VRetreats five-star luxury establishments. VOIHotels already has locations in Puglia, and Speziale says the VRetreats is opening a new location in the scenic city of Matera in neighboring Basilicata soon. Neos operates four flights a week from Milan to JFK and two a week from Palermo as of last year.
As a privately held company with comparatively fewer resources than the international hotel and airline conglomerates with which it competes, Neos has to be strategic in deciding what new routes to take on. “We’re always looking for airports that are overlooked and where there’s not a lot of competition, especially from the majors,” Speziale explains. “Last year, Palermo had no one doing direct flights out of the United States. Now, after we started, United and Delta have taken on their own Sicily routes. They were looking at what we’re doing.”
The weekly Bari flights will be made with the latest generation Boeing 787 Dreamliners with economy and premium class seating. Speziale explains that the latter is a slightly trimmed business-like class, with the typical spacious seating one expects as a step up from economy that reclines significantly without flattening out fully. The premium class also offers access to Neos lounges in JFK and Italian airports, as well as free wifi and multi-course dining on board.
One potential obstacle in taking on this new route, according to Speziale, is generating awareness of Puglia as a tourist destination, despite its reputation for beaches so pristine that Italians call it the Maldives of the Mediterranean. “We need to promote it here in the states,” she says, “because Puglia is not as well-known as Sicily.” According to data from 2019, Puglia attracted 15 million visitors that year, making it the eighth most visited region out of the country’s 20. However, nearly 75% of that figure came from Italians visiting from other parts of the country. Still, the head of the Apulian town of Polignano a Mare’s tourism board told a news outlet in 2023 that the number of foreign tourists was up over 20% from the previous year, coming mostly from Australia, France, and the United States.
Overall, Speziale sees potential, telling La Voce that Neos was impressed with the proposal they received from the Bari airport. “They showed us the numbers and it looked promising, so we’re going for it.”
