We’re leaving Palermo on our way to London. easyJet is a great airline for these types of flights. Today we’re on an easyJet A319, one of the smallest planes in the easyJet fleet but also one of the most common. We’re flying into London Gatwick airport. When flying into London, be careful about the airport you choose, some like Luton or Stansted are really far from the city center and the train/bus to the city can be very expensive.
When booking easyJet I don’t cheap out, I buy seat assignments and carry-on luggage. There’s no reason not to. The whole thing is so cheap anyway. For the one way flight, with luggage and seats we paid less than 80eur. I have some tips and tricks when it comes to booking easyJet flights. The easyJet A319 is in an all economy configuration so while some seats are better than others, there are not a whole lot of differences between them. We lucked out with easyJet A319 exit row seats for this trip. The exit row has some of the better seats.
Bottom Line: For this trip up to London easyJet was the perfect choice. An easyJet A319 is not a glamorous choice, but it’s direct, cheap, and convenient. For me, that’s better than anything else. Anyway, let’s get into the easyJet A319 Review.
In This Trip
Palermo Airport(PMO)
We arrived at PMO about 90 minutes before our easyJet flight up to London. We dropped off our rental car and then walked across the street and into the terminal.
Once inside, we headed up to the departures level. We had already checked in on the easyJet App so no need to stop at the check in counter.
Once inside the terminal we made our way to security. We already have our boarding passes from the easyJet app. Security was fast and once airside we walked towards our gate.
As always, you exit through the gift shop.
Palermo Airport Exit Immigration and Non-Schengen Departures
Since we’re flying to London we’ll need to pass through passport control here in PMO to leave the Schengen area. This process was also very fast. Our easyJet flight is the only non-Schengen flight leaving right now.
Past boarder control, there are only 3 gates. There’s a small cafe with coffee, drinks, and snacks. But that’s about it. There is a bathroom if you need it too. From pulling into the PMO rental car parking lot until arriving at the gate, the total process took about 35 minutes. Not bad at all.
EasyJet A319 Boarding Process
Our easyJet flight departure time is 10:15 and at 9:30 boarding was call. Outside the window I could see our easyJet A319 had just landed and was pulling into the gate. easyJet does that, they start boarding very quickly and then everyone lines up after scanning their boarding pass.
The gate agents did take a glance at our carry on bags. They are within the easyJet size requirements but look large. They fit right into the sizer at the gate so no issues for us, but easyJet will measure bags that look too large and charge a checked baggage fee.
After waiting around for a good 30 minutes, we finally boarded the plane at 10:00. As always, the easyJet a319 was quickly boarded. easyJet uses the front and rear doors for boarding, your boarding pass will tell you what door to use.
The easyJet A319 is somewhat interesting in that they have 2 sets of overwing exits unlike the normal 1. The easyJet A319 is relatively dense and thus needs more exits.
EasyJet A319 Cabin Review
This easyJet a319 is a little older than some of the other planes in the easyJet fleet. The plane was clean and well maintained, just a little worn. The easyJet A319 has 150 or 156 seats(depending on configuration) in standard 3-3 configuration. We’re in the exit seats in row 11.
There’s a good amount of overhead storage on the easyJet A319 because a carry on bag is not included with most tickets. I wouldn’t want to be the last person to board, but if you purchase a carry on bag, you’ll usually have space to store it.
I didn’t pay the cost of these seats, we originally were on a different plane type, but because of the plane swap we ended up here. I’m not going to turn that down. We stowed our baggage in the overhead bin then we settled into the rearward exit row on the left hand side of the easyJet A319.
EasyJet A319 Exit Row Seat Review
After boarding the easyJet A319 flight attendants came around and told us all items must go in the overhead bin. Even small bags and jackets must go up for takeoff and landing. That just means that here in the exit row there’s a ton of leg room.
The easyJet A319 exit row is a great place to be. Lots of leg room, and because you have to put all items up, I don’t even feel bad about lots of extra space. We were assigned the window and aisle seats here in the exit row, so for a little while I thought we might get lucky and have the middle seat empty, but it was filled. I swapped seats with the person who was assigned the middle so they had the aisle and I sat next to Val.
No in seat entertainment on the easyJet A319. There’s also no in seat power on the easyJet A319 so we always make sure to have a portable power bank to charge devices.
The overhead panel on the easyJet A319 is standard Airbus narrow body. I liked that individual air vents actually put out air.
The flight attendants gave their safety briefing and then we did sit at the gate for a few minutes. Then a few minutes later we pushed back and began our taxi over to the runway.
EasyJet A319 Departure and Takeoff
The pilot added his welcome and told us it would be a 2:40 flight from Palermo to London. We might be a minute or two delayed due to our takeoff slot. We’re planning on taking off to the west and then making the turn north to London. We soon were on the runway and tookoff.
After takeoff we made our turn and then climb through the clouds. We got a really nice parting view of Sicily.
EasyJet A319 Drink and Snack Service
The seatbelt sign was turned off and the flight attendants began their snack and drink service. For easyJet the entire snack service is buy on board, there are no free options.
EasyJet menu options. EasyJet only accepts card payments onboard.
On short easyJet flights the drink and snack cart makes a run that usually isn’t super popular. On longer flights, like our PMO-LGW flight, is a popular service with drinks and snacks being slung to most rows. The prices are very reasonable, not amazing, but fair.
EasyJet in-flight drinks menu.
We settled for a Hot Ham and Cheese Toasty with a water. For about 8gbp, you could do a lot worse. In fact, the hot food on easyJet is better than some other first class domestic flight meals I’ve had in the past.
We just split the sandwich as we had eaten breakfast not to long ago.
Val also brought a cannolo from Palermo as an onboard snack.
EasyJet A319 In Flight Review
We finally broke through the final layer of clouds and it became very smooth. In cruise, the easyJet A319 is right about 70db of noise.
No in flight entertainment on the easyJet A319 so I put on a show and settled into the rest of the flight. There is a wifi network to connect to, but no internet access. There is a flight tracker though to track the progress of our flight to London.
The flight attendants made their rounds with the duty free cart, easyJet is still an ultra low cost carrier and will try to make money wherever they can. A few people took the flight attendants up on their offer.
EasyJet A319 Lavatory
The person sitting in the aisle seat got up out of her seat so I took the opportunity to run to the toilet. The EasyJet A319 lavatory in the rear is a decent size, not huge but not tiny. It was clean enough but the sink didn’t drain very well after washing my hands.
I headed back to my exit row seat and then settled into another pre-downloaded episode on my phone.
EasyJet A319 Decent and Landing into LGW
The pilots told us we have about 35 minutes left in the flight. He gave a nice brief explanation of the route we took. We took off to the west, continued north passing between Corsica and Italy, then up over Geneva, and we’re just about to finish crossing the channel from the French coast. I like when the pilots give a nice short briefing like that.
The flight attendants said they’d be discontinuing the buy in board program soon. They then made one more trip through to collect any garbage as we crossed over the southern coast of England.
We made a few turns as we approached Gatwick and it looks like the weather in London will be perfect.
And on the ground here in LGW.
EasyJet A319 Final Thoughts
All in, I really like easyJet. This A319 Exit Row is a great experience. Plenty of leg room even if there is no recline on the seats. I do think I like the easyJet A319 more than the A320, the seats are a little more comfortable and plush.
With easyJet you know exactly what you’re getting. While easyJet charges money for pretty much everyone, the prices are all upfront and somewhat reasonable. The bundles are also often a decent deal if it want a seat assignment and some sort of baggage. As always, make sure your bags are the correct size, but stay within the restrictions and you won’t have issues. If you push your luck easyJet will make you check a bag and charge the gate check price to do it.
The snack service on board the easyJet A319 is really good. For a few dollars/pounds/euro you can have a nice hot sandwich and a drink. The onboard purchases are credit card only, no cash to worry about.
I like flying with easyJet and will gladly do so again.
Follow Our Trip Around the World
Flight Review: Air France A350-900 Business Class DTW-CDG
Flight Review: Air France Hop ERJ190 Economy CDG-PMO Diverted Flight
Flight Review: EasyJet A319 Economy Exit Row PMO-LGW
Hotel Review: The Wesley Camden London
Flight Review: Vietnam Airlines 787-9 Business Class LHR-SGN
Hotel Review: Hotel Review: Le Méridien Saigon-Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam
Flight Review: Vietnam Airlines A321 Business Class SGN-DAD
Hotel Review: Sheraton Grand Da Nang
Flight Review: Singapore Airlines 737 Max 8 Economy. DAD-SIN
Hotel Review: Holiday Inn Express Singapore Clarke Quay
Flight Review: Singapore Airlines A350-900 Business Class SIN-JFK.