This Underrated but Beautiful Part of Southern Italy Just Got Its First Direct Flight From the U.S — What to Know

Want to get away to a less-visited but breathtakingly beautiful part of Italy? NEOS Airlines has you covered with the launch of the first-ever nonstop flight to the southern Italian state of Puglia in June. 

The inaugural flight will depart John F. Kennedy International Airport on June 3 to Bari, the capital of Puglia.  

The red-eye flights will be seasonal and run through October 15, and will include Premium and Economy classes on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. In a statement, the Italian airline said that “NEOS will depart from JFK every Tuesday at 4 p.m., arriving at Bari’s Karol Wojtyla Airport the following morning at 8 a.m. Flights from Bari will depart at 11:30 a.m., arriving at JFK at 1:50 p.m.”

The flight adds to NEOS’s existing routes from JFK to Milan and Palermo. NEOS Airlines is an Italian airline that launched in the early 2000s and has quickly become one of the country’s largest. In 2021 the airline began flying from Toronto to Milan. 

Puglia, known as the southern “heel of the boot” region of Italy bordering the Ioanian and Adriatic Seas, is not as well-known as the Amalfi coast, but is getting more attention in recent years as a tourist destination with fewer crowds. The region includes popular destinations such as Lecce, a city filled with Baroque architecture.