Hereby my promised tripreport of my BAE ATP plane-trip to Sweden :
Some months ago, tought around february, I read a topic on airliners.net about flying classic aircraft in 2012.
Here I read that you could still fly a BAE ATP in europe and that there were only four aircraft remaining in the world which are used for pax., all the others are cargo versions..
The operator was Nextjet and there was for the moment one route which has a very big certainity for logging this bird.
The route was Stockholm Bromma BMA to Växjö Smaland VXO Airport, a swedish domestic flight to southern sweden.
The idea get stuck in my brain and so it was that I booked this trip.. only four remaining ...mmm...
I booked my flight to Stockholm Bromma with Brussels Airlines,which is the only big international operator for Bromma. ( except Finnair/Finncomm / Fly Be Nordic.. )
+-90 euros,sheduled by AVRO RJ100, due to a short runway no Airbus nor Boeing here, and honestly a relief..
The main flight was booked by Flysmaland.com, part of sverigefly.com, coded with IATA code of Golden Air, operated by NextJet.., around 90 euros..
current livery :
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Sverigef ... b18f6cad22
So that was that..
Somewhat after this, my/our friend quixoticguide joined me..
Offcourse, going with a friend is more fun than alone
Wednesday 19/9/2012
BRU-BMA SN2303 AVRO RJ100 OO-DWD Flighttime : 1h50'
Loadfactor : 48/97pax ( 48 = 21 bLight - 26 bFlex - 1 bBusiness = +-50 % )
Boarding with a jet-bridge, on-time, check-in and bagage drop-off smoothly.
Take-off from 25L with a sharp turn left flying Gent-Zeeland-...-nice views of Swedish mainland and Danmark shores..
Nice old worn seats, very friendly crew, like always a coffee and a chocolate muffin for 4 euros..
Why not free for everyone and raise the ticket fare with 4 euros
IMO : Service would be improved for everyone and we still would have a bit of a full service and low fare feeling
By time of landing great sights of Stockholm city .. ( Seating on the right side )
After this, a quick disembarkment, and a nice welcome as the guards let us take photo's of our bird and even let us walking around the aircraft.. what a service comparing by nowadays other airports ( like CRL-WMI--
).Then the thing that let SN dropped all the good things they did before, due to a door/a technical problem , we had to wait almost ONE hour of our bags.. Quite a disillusion..
A small plane,just 40 bags, 40 metres away from us
Here, in the waiting room, I noticed the AFRICAN meaning of SN, indeed quite a lot of black people which were on our aircraft.. comin' from an african connection flight..
After this,we took the twice less cheap public bus to the city centre instead of the special airportbus of flygbussarna. 36 kr bus to Alvik metro-station and then an included metro-ride to Hoturget, downtown Stockholm.
After checkin' in in our hostel,City Backpackers Hostel ( very very good and cheap ) we decided to go for a short walk around Kungsholmen,Gamla Stan,the Radhus and the Stadshuset, Fotografiska Museet and Sodermolm areas.
Next day, a walk to Skeppsholmen and back to Bromma for a bit of spotting..
Just aside BROMMA airport, there's a giant rock with a bench on top for some great spotting over Bromma Airport..
( Malmo Aviation AVRO's, SAAB 340/200, Do328JET and Prop, Jetstream, a SAS DC3
, ATR42 and a cessna or a piper gave us some time to spare while waiting for our own plane, the BAE ATP ..)Inside the terminal, I must notice,you can have a great warm meal and drink for 99 kr, as you can see on the big number of people having lunch here..
Then to check-in, collecting our boarding-passes for our BAE ATP ride, yezz, the BAE-ATP is flying today !!
After security, again to the gate and then Ryanair style to the aircraft as here also free seating.. everything after row 8 is okay so in the back with view on the wing...
BMO-VXO DC 311 BAE ATP SE-LLO 17pax/68 pax.. Flight-time : 0h55'
A prop-take-off but not like the most of us know.. lot of noise, but not steep, a gently right take-off, like I only experieced before on my DC3 flight.. special..
The curly wing-flaps were a strange thing to see I must say.. but great sights above the swedish forrest and lakes, cheap but payble coffee ( 15kr - free refill ), a bit of turbulence.. always nice when it stays by a bit haha
Landing was quite soft and then to the main building, cockpit visit was allowed where we talked with the pilots..
( only type-rating for BaeATP, and they where saying that the aircraft would be still for 10 more years in NextJet fleet, but the plane which was sheduled this days flight was tech, ..and we heard that the next day this plane was tech also, so in two days 50% of the worlds BAE ATP Pax-fleet was tech .. and was replaced by a SF2
, so pilots I would go for another one,no ?? )Traffic on this route were mainly Vaxjo-people travelling to work in Stockholm on a monday-thursday shedule, and the most of them returning home for the weekend,or travelling daily to work..
Vaxjo is a small nice cosy airport,good for pics,.. and we were welcomed by a eland ( statue )
We had three hours to spend here,so we walked the swedish forrest around the airport, mushrooms,lingon-berry, all kinds of greens,rocks,trees you can imagine of a swedish forrest and 1 deer, great walk..
After this a kladkakka
and a drink and collecting boarding-passes again,security and to the gate..Very friendly and for the first time I was body-checked at the security by a female
.. swedish policy ?
The same plane-landed,free seating again,so taking pics while walking fast..
Same seating area,everything after row five was okay..
VXO-BMA DC 306 BAE ATP SE-LLO 31pax/68 pax.. Flight-time : 0h47'
Flight idem..but very very nice and good-looking stewardess in jeans,ordered a coffee and had a chat with her for 15min... nice
Again,during landing some great sights off Stockholm with lights
After this,again to the city for a meal of köttbullar at Backfickan, the resto of the opera,very very nice..
( André , take notice
)The next day, we went to the world first open-air museum,Skansen..
Great animals, historic houses, like the Belgium 'BOKRIJK' but way better.. ( take care of squirrels, was two times attacked by them -jumped on me- haha )
Then to the Bromma again,we started to knowing the way..for our return flight to Brussels by SN.
BMA-BRU SN2308 AVRO RJ100 OO-DWB 65/97 pax Flighttime : 2h10'
Check-in and security smoothly and very friendly..
Boarding in open-air in the pooring rain
And then we were greeted and got our safety-lesson by the most chaotic pursor ever..
He couldn't talk decent english,dutch nor french.. ( I know I'm not the best eather but at least I don't do safety-briefings -yet - , what if he has to do his job in an emergency, I don't know.. )
He mixed some dutch in the french text,some french in the dutch text and so on..
He walked through the plane with so an excited walk,that I really tought there was something going on..
No nice calm feelings...
I wasn't the only one with this,the people next to me and behind me made this remarks also..
Euhh.. Fawlty Towers in a SN AVRO Jet,...
Pity to see that the other stewardess which do had all the qualities such person need and wasn't in charge..
But she was too young I guess..
Flight was good, same seats, same catering..
While landing we -enjoyed- a go-around due to a small technical problem as the pilots stated after five minutes after the go-around,but as everthing was okay now we would go for a second attempt
( later, the pilots declared a malfunction with the landing gear )
After the smooth landing we enjoyed a cockpit visit with some very friendly pilots and then off to the luggage belt where, on contrary to Sweden, our luggage was already circling around !!
Conclusion :
Flying the BaeATP was a nice trip, the plane looks a generation older than it really is..
The take-off is really special, the noise level the worst part of flying this prop.
Flysmaland is really a very very good, hip modern company ( with classic aircraft ), good fares, and I don't care of a payable cheap drinks with free refill here because here.. there was no free service.. everybody has to pay..
But glad to flown the BaeATP as their techs are a bit too frequent IMO..
SN service was outbound very good but the luggage was a bummer..
SN service return was euh... and with the go-around and the chaotic pursor .. euh..remarkable..
Overall, SN didn't made a very good impression to me - for the first time -..
If I must compare them by Ryanair this time, I really don't know..
with this fare I would certainly stay with them, because I needed luggage and a day-back-pack..
But with a compact camera and first time BrusselsAirliners expierences.. not a good recommendation,truely..
But luckily I have a lot more positive experiences with SN..
SN => a second attempt this friday AVRO-service to LIN
And quixoticguide, next year logging a SAAB2000 or DO328
Greetz,
CX-B
Note : pics uploading didn't work out, have no webpage to link .. for those knowing me : facebook
