After check-in, it was nice to walk in the modern airport of Arrecife. The surprise came when the plane that landed at the foressen gate whad yellow insted of blue colours: it was D-AICB, an Airbus 320-212 of Thomas Cook powered by Condor in the old yellow Condor colous with blue Thomas Cook titles.
Boarding was early. The captain was present to welcome passengers. I asked him in German whether I could attend take-off in the jumpseat, but the answer was the standard NO. He later told me that the plane had left from Stuttgart the same morning and would return to Stuttgart in the evening, all with the same crew for which it must have been a very long day. Hence the delayed departure.
The crew was entirely German (as usual: captain, co-pilot and 4 cabin crew), plus one additional Belgian purser to make the annoucements in Dutch and French. The German crew only spoke English and German.
Load factor was 98%, but Terenia and I were the lucky ones who got a free seat in their row. I had seat 2F, an excellent viewpoint to see hotel Beatriz Playa a last time, after a take-offthat was 20 minutes early. Indeed, exceptionnally, Runway 21 was used instead of 03 because of the weak wind and the fact we had to fly South to Fuerteventura. After 15 minutes flight at low altitude, we landed at FUE on 01. The screens showed everything from taxiing to take-off to landing filmed by the under-cockpit camera.
The stop at FUE, where we had to disembark to another nice modern airport, was shorter than expected and the plane took off from 01 again 10 minutes ahead of schedule.
After the usual Premium class orange juice, we got the lunch (chicken or tricolour pasta, salad, cheese on a roll, dessert) with wine. Afterwards the film and the touristic ads on the screen (you have to pay 3.50 € for the earphones, but you can keep them after the trip).
Beautiful whether throughout the trip. Landing in Brussels was also 15 minutes early, on 02 which I like very much because of the nice sights of Waterloo, the lake of Genval and the Forest of Soignes.
Excellent return trip after a nice stay.
8O 