This is the continuation of my flight report that started with the IB flight to BCN on 11/9 that returned to BRU because of smoke in the cabin.
I got a new ticket for the 19h35 IB 3205 flight BRU-MAD and the 23u50 IB 236 flight MAD-AGP.
Boarding time on the IB 3205 was 19h05, but because the 757 from MAD had just arrived at A49 around that time, we would be (again!) delayed. A friendly gate agent told me the plane would be cleaned very fast and turn around time would be considerably shortened. Finally, we could
board around 20h00. Again, a friendly Iberia crew was there to welcome us. Because I asked for emergency exit seats at check-in, we were seated at 17A-B-C, with sufficient legroom even for people over 2m I think
. Load factor was about 60 % I think. The captain anounced there was a little technical problem, and assured us we would push-back within 20 minutes. About the English language skills of Iberia pilots: please do not swallow all your words like you do in Spanish, it is very difficult to understand 
. The ground staff (men in fluorescent green overalls) were going in and out of the cockpit all the time. Finally, the technical problem was solved, and we would eventually take-off around 20u55. I was already a bit worried about our connection time in MAD, especially if our luggage would make it to AGP. About the service: I was surprised we got a free drink and peanuts/almonds. Is the Iberia catering in economy free after all?? But after that, the flight attendants 'rushed' through the cabin with their expensive 'Tu Menú' items, and in less than 1 hour after take-off, they disappeared in the rear galley until landing. That's easily earned money if you ask me. Some 20 minutes before landing the gates of the connecting flights in MAD were anounced. I could hear Santiago de Chile, Malaga, Valencia,...The flight was rather uneventful, and 2h after take-off, we touched down at MAD rwy 33 (I think..). Our gate to AGP was D65, where we would take a bus to a remote stand, where our 757 (again) was standing. I hoped for an MD-87/88 (smiley). Seats were 22D-E-F. Load factor about 75 %. The seat pitch (non-emergency exit seat) was considerably bigger than on the A320 earlier that day. Maybe that's because the 757's make generally longer flights than the A320's? In contrary to the 2 other flights I took the same day, the IB 236 MAD-AGP was very punctual, and left exactly at 23h50, the ETD. We could push the red button over our heads to order some food. I ordered the cheapest item of the list, mineral water (1 €)
. After 50 minutes of flying time, we finally touched down at AGP on rwy 14. Even our luggage made it!! At last we could drive to the hotel, and fell asleep in no time...After having spent some sunny and less sunny days at the Costa del Sol, it was time to leave for Bélgica again. Our taxi drive from Torremolinos lasted about 15 minutes, and so we were at Malaga Airport at 10h30, good two hours before our ETD 12h40. It was busy, very busy. There were only 2 Iberia check-in desks in the huge departure hall, it seemed Easyjet, Air Berlin and other LCC/charters took most space. No queues, everything went very smooth. But, very indifferent and unfriendly check-in agent. I think, in general, airport staff are more rude than airline staff. The work at the ground must be more boring...
Security at Malaga is far less smooth than in Brussels, security personnel is more suspicious in my opinion. But friendly however. At airside, we went upstairs to get a drink at the self service cafetaria. For one last time, I took my favourite cerveza, San Miguel. It must have been the most expensive 'pils' I ever took: 3,80 €. Scandalous!
Malaga Airport in my opinion is nice for spotting: huge windows, with sufficient seating possibilities, very close to the 2 main gate area's (B &C). Traffic is nice too. I'm sorry I didn't take any pictures or wrote down registrations. I guess I'm too lazy for that
.Our gate was B38, where we boarded on time (12h10). Seats+legroom
(15D-E-F) were exactly the same as before on the 757. The flight lasted 50 minutes, as on the 'outbound sector'. Not much to mention on this flight. We touched down on time on rwy 33, and taxied to a remote stand. Being bussed away from the aircaft, I was in spotters heaven
. Planes from exotic places taxiing from and to all directions (Air Pullmantur B747-300, Aerolineas Argentinas MD-8.. --> this plane has not the range to fly Argentina-Spain, so why was it there?).We had almost 3 hours to enjoy ourselves in MAD. We proceeded to a
pizzeria between the D and E gates to fill our empty stomachs. Still not
knowing our gate (would be E or D), we decided to walk to the end of the
E-pier, just for fun, and return. When we arrived at the end, our gate number was finally displayed: E81! Only 20 meters away from where we were standing. How lucky we were...Very slowly people turned up at the gate, predominantly business men in fancy suits. Boarding time was not on time because of a disabled man that had priority over us to enter the aircraft came in. When we thought we would finally push back, the cargo doors opened again
. A lot of noise under our feet, and finally a few bags were loaded off the aircraft. To add to this, the captain announced we missed our slot, so we finally took off at 17h30 (delay of 1h10). Weather over the Madrid area was nice, but over Northern Spain, there were a lot of flowery clouds, with here and there a cumulonimbus. Something about our routing: for more than 45 minutes we were actually flying over the sea, and pretty far from the French Atlantic Coast. Somebody else had this routing before? Already soon we started our descent into BRU, which was very slow. We were above the clouds for ages. Still at high altitude, we could see BRU at our right side. We made a gentle left turn, and descended further. Finally an (again) gentle turn to intercept 25L. This must have been one of the longest approaches into BRU I made. Were the STAR-procedures changed recently? Landing was without thrust reversers, and still at high speed we took C2 to exit.
Hope your enjoyed...
Greetz,
Jelle
