Maldives and Zanzibar layovers for European charter crew: the resort island reality, the crew hotel, the 48 hours and why Italian leisure crews bid them
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#1 Neos, Milan, four years, leisure long haul, and the layover threads on here are the scheduled carriers' cities. The Italian charter long haul has a different kind of layover: the resort island, 48 hours, with the tour operator's passengers in the same resort. Here it is.
Neos and the Italian leisure long haul
Neos is the Italian leisure carrier (the Alpitour group), Milan Malpensa and Verona based, 787s and 737 MAXs, flying the Italian tour operators' long haul: the Maldives, Zanzibar, Kenya (Mombasa), Mexico (Cancún), the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Thailand, and the Cape Verde islands. The crew are Italian, the passengers are Italian holidaymakers on the package of the year, and the layover is the resort.
The Maldives layover
Malé arrival in the morning after a ten hour night sector, a speedboat or a seaplane to the crew resort (a proper resort, sometimes the same one the passengers are in, sometimes a crew rate one), 48 hours, and the flight home. The traps: the bar on arrival (the Cancún thread has them all), the sleep through the whole layover, the resort prices for everything not included. The reward: the reef, the water, the sunset from a crew room that would cost the passengers a week's salary.
The Zanzibar layover
The Kenya and Zanzibar flights bring the crew to Stone Town or the east coast beaches, a 48 hour pattern, a crew hotel that is good, and a layover that has a real town to walk in unlike the Maldives. The Stone Town spice market and the east coast at low tide are the crew's two things. The security briefing for Zanzibar is relaxed by African standards and the crew follow it.
The crew hotel reality
The charter crews are in resorts, not city hotels, and the resort life for 48 hours is either heaven or claustrophobic depending on the crew member. The ones who love it swim, read and sleep. The ones who hate it have nowhere to go. The charter long haul selects for the first kind over two years.
Why the Italian leisure crews bid them
The money: the leisure long haul allowances and the per diems in dollars. The days off between trips. The resort itself, for the crew who love it. And the Italian passengers, who on the outbound are the happiest people in the sky and on the return are sunburned and sad and grateful, which suits the Italian service style.
Versus the scheduled carriers' layovers
Madrid, Tokyo, New York: cities to explore, restaurants, the layover threads' routines. The Maldives, Zanzibar, Cancún: resorts to rest in, the same three activities, the water. Crew who want cities go to ITA or Lufthansa. Crew who want the water go to Neos and Condor and TUI. Both are long haul. The passport stamps are different.
For Italian applicants
Neos hires Italians in rounds tied to the tour operators' seasons, with English tested and a second language a plus, the reach, and a training in Milan. The Italian charter long haul is a specific career and a good one for the right person. The right person likes the water.
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#2 Condor Frankfurt, and the Neos Maldives layover is our Maldives layover with Italian instead of German passengers. The resort claustrophobia is the thing that decides who lasts. I swim. The ones who do not swim leave.
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#3 TUI Glasgow, and the resort layover selecting for a kind of crew over two years is exactly right. The list per layover (one thing off it each time) is how I stayed sane in Cancún. Pietro's Zanzibar has a town, which helps.
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#4 ITA Rome, and the Italian choice between ITA cities and Neos water is a real one for Italian applicants. Half my ITA course considered Neos. The ones who wanted Tokyo stayed. The ones who wanted the reef went.
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#5 Italian, ex Ryanair, and Neos is the Italian long haul option that the Italian applicants forget because it is charter. The 787 to the Maldives from Malpensa is a real long haul with a real allowance. Good thread.
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#6 KLM, and the Zanzibar and Mombasa flying from the Italian charter side is the same Africa our crews love with a resort instead of a city hotel. The Stone Town spice market is on every KLM Africa crew's list too.
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#7 Air Transat Montreal, and the Canadian leisure long haul is the same resort life with the Caribbean and Mexico. Pietro's 'heaven or claustrophobic' is the leisure long haul truth on every continent.
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#8 Rome, and the Italian passengers on the return being sunburned, sad and grateful is a description every Italian crew member recognises with love. The service style suits them because we are them.