SATA, the Azores and the A310! (part II)
PDL-LIS-BRU&RANGE=&PATH-COLOR=&PATH-UNITS=km&PATH-MINIMUM=&MARKER=1&SPEED-GROUND=&SPEED-UNITS=kts&RANGE-STYLE=best&RANGE-COLOR=&MAP-STYLE=" target="_blank">http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?PATH=P...st&RANGE-COLOR=&MAP-STYLE=


Side note:
This trip will focus on my stay in Ponta Delgada and the flight to Lisbon, which will be widely covered by pics! For the ones interested I did ad the details of my Lisbon to Brussels flight!

Trip related reports
1. SATA, The Azores And The A310! Part I (by MSS658 Oct 16 2011 in Trip Reports)

Background:
New year 2011, quite a bit of spare time before my next school assignment, so an ideal time to do some flying. I had quite a few must-fly types that I wanted to see in my log. Where as the A310, B753 and MD11. I had flown the summer before on the KLM MD11 between Amsterdam and Montreal. So this would leave only 2 desired aircraft types. From my younger teenage years I always wished to fly the 310. As I was with sky team the CSA 310 on the PRG-JFK route always looked attractive to me. But it was zeroed out when Delta took over the route with a 767… Another option was Air Transat who operated 310’s in to BRU from Montreal… Would be nice. In a mood of boredom back in 2010 I found some new codes of airlines and airports S4 and PDL operating flights from PDL to Lisbon on A310’s. This would be SATA Azores Internacional who operated frequently on flights between the Azores, Lisbon, Toronto and Boston. PDL Would stand for Ponta Delgada, The capital of the Azores Island group. Back fast forward to January 2011, Looking for a trip including A310. I had a safe option to a well known city, I could grab a seat on Air Transat’s Paris-Toronto service, or go of path with a similar priced deal on TAP/SATA’s Brussels-Lisbon-Ponta Delgada service. One way or the other?? Oh well, we have to be brave sometimes in our lives. So I chose for the latter option. When I booked online I could not enter my Continental OnePass number, after making a phone call to the TAP office my number was entered. When the booking was completed I checked some reviews and did not hear to much positive about TAP and SATA. Especially them not liking enthusiasts and Photographers… hmmm was it a good choice?? Let’s see..

Pre-departure:
A weekend on a barely known Island somewhere in the Atlantic, what’s to do? When daylight approached I went out to see what is in town! Ponta Delgada appears to be a town that is comparable to any mid-size European town, not big not small. Accompanied by the nice Portuguese architecture and a small harbour where all life is out. Occasionally being passed by a car with loud techno music. In the afternoon hours I took a bus ride up a small village to visit some pineapple yards! It was entertaining to see how easy-going life style was on the Island. People just hanging out by the bar area, hmmm just seems to be nice. In the evening I had a nice 3-course dinner for only 29 EUR. Quite a nice deal!


The next day I found myself taking the bus (with not a bad schedule) to the North side of the Island, Ribeira Grande. It was nice seeing the different landscaping the island while getting there by bus! Once in Ribeira Grande, there was not much to do on this Sunday afternoon, just some fast food shops and wifi on it’s main square. Walking to the North side I could see waves with tops up to 12 feet high! After walking a bit in the countryside It was time to go back to Ponta Delgada. After some good Chinese food I tried to check in for my trip back home. TAP’s website allowed me to check me in for the Lisbon to Brussels sector (different layout of website then when I checked in from Brussels to Ponta Delgada). But not on the Ponta Delgada-Lisbon sector, quite inconvenient. Next morning 6.00 came and it was time to rise and shine! At 7.00 my journey started to the airport, a glimpse of daylight was to be seen. When arriving at the airport I could see an A310 in old colors. So far so good, CS-TKN would not take me back to Lisbon.


@ the airport
I arrived at 7.30. After saying brigado to the taxi driver I was on my way in to the airport! I found the check in desks to be rather deserted. There where separate desks dedicated for S4 120 to Lisbon. The counter agent gave me both boarding passes and checked my bag all the way in to Brussels, promising me the two loads will be light. Sounds good !! After passing the security it was now 7.45, just about an hour before departure and I was in the quiet terminal of Ponta Delgada. The only planes that where due to depart was us and some intra-island flights and our flight. 95% of the traffic here in Ponta Delgada is operated by SATA air azores or SATA Internacional. Occasionally Air Berlin makes it down from TXL and TAP will operate Lisbon on own metal! In the far distance I could see our A310 enjoying the morning sun before her ride up to Lisbon. At 8.00 some action came in as an A320 registerd CS-TKO came to a stop right in front of me outside. She just had landed as S4 121 from Lisbon. She would leave about an hour after us back to Oporto. I was quite surprised how modern this airport was, even the announcements where automatic. Soon it was to be 8.30 and the boarding was called. We where allowed to walk out on the tarmac, the first passengers started walking and turning right to CS-TKO which raised my adrelaline level. Thank goodness the gate agent redirected the crowd to an A310 located a bit further. She would be registred as CS-TGV


The flight:
Monday, February 7 2011
Ponta Delgada (PDL/LPPD) – Lisbon (LIS/LPPT)
SATA Azores Internacional 0120 (TAP Air Portugal 6550)
Airbus A310-304 CS-TGV. “Sao Miguel ” Economy 24A
Delivered to Air Afrique as TU-TAD on 20 May 1992, later delivered to SATA Internacional as CS-TGV on 16 February 2000)
08.45-08.48 (Gate 3/W06; wheels up on runway 12 at 08.58)
11.50-11.53 (Stand 404; wheels down on runway 3 at 11.46)
Est flying time: 1 hour 50 minutes
Cruising Altitude: FL 400
Load factor: 50% in Y
Routing: PBI-DEKUN-3820W-KOMUI-CPNB-LIS
PDL-LIS&RANGE=&PATH-COLOR=&PATH-UNITS=km&PATH-MINIMUM=&MARKER=1&SPEED-GROUND=&SPEED-UNITS=kts&RANGE-STYLE=best&RANGE-COLOR=&MAP-STYLE=" target="_blank">http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?PATH=P...st&RANGE-COLOR=&MAP-STYLE=
Personal statistics
140th registered flight.
3rd flight in 2011
2nd flight on SATA Azores Internacional
2nd flight on the A310
1st flight on CS-TGV

I opted to board from the forward airstairs, I was greeted by a good morning, and when I replied ‘Hey, how are you doing’. I received –as on my flight to Ponta Delgada Friday – just a nodd in return! The crew was a bit more relaxed than my flight to Ponta Delgada, but still where very cool and distant. On the overhead screens the flight map was shown, this would be the only show we would be able to see for the time being. Soon the doors where closed, and the screens where folded away for the remainder of the flight and the manual safety demonstration begun. 08.57 in Ponta Delgada, 09.57 in Lisbon: the engines where throttled up and we where in the air. I was able to get a last glimpse of Ponta Delgada and Sao Miguel island before heading over the Atlantic towards mainland Europe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oux4XZkaIhQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGVw_ZIdAo8


While J-class seems to be the same, Economy class seems to be a bit different on this ex-Air Afrique bird. The seats seem to be more thin than the seats to be found on the rest of the fleet and giving a bit more room for the legs. Soon the service started and half of the crew disappeared in the SAGA Business class cabin, the other half was sitting in the back of the plane reading some books. So what does the normal aviation geek does in these circumstances.. Read, look to the ocean, enjoying the non existent IFE?? Or… grabbing my camera and making some good pictures . About 45 minutes into the flight the service began in the Economy cabin. The service consisted of a baguette and some fruit. The remainder of the flight passed by uneventfull
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoZkZAszwrw


10.15 in Ponta Delgada, 11.15 in Lisbon, the throttles started pulling back and the plane slowly started descending. While sitting back and enjoying the final moments of this nostalgic ride, I spotted mainland Portugal coming closer and closer. The weather seemed to be nice and clear. After making some turns we made it on the ground on runway 3, the exact same runway as Friday at 11.46. Passing by I could notice terminal 1 was full of planes. After passing numerous A330’s and A310’s we came to halt at stand 404! Right next to it’s sisterships CS-TKM and CS-TKN. 3 A310’s in a row… a sight you can only find in Ponta Delgada or Lisbon. When deboarding we had to go through the rear air stairs. As the bus just left I had to wait on the airstairs, with a camera by the hand.. This was simply great. After one last greet to CS-TGV I was in the terminal at 12.05.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqSMLB9DB8Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3of_745Vwk


The bus dropped us af a few doors prior to where we disembarked Friday after flying from Brussels! This time there we clearly marked signs for transfer passengers and for passengers ending their travels here in Lisbon. I went up stairs and noticed my gate would be gate 116, just a small walk from my position. At the gate I found HB-IJX, would she take me home?? If course not! She is being prepared for flight LX 2085 to Zurich. After some walking around I felt around in my pockets,.. don’t tell me again… Yes another misplaced item, something that normally does not happen to me happened for the second time in a row! Thank goodness, not a drama like on my recent US trip in December, but still an annoyance. I lost the sheet with some flight details of my inbound flight from Ponta Delgada. Normally a non issue, but still begin about an hour and a half from departure I decided to go to arrivals and ask if maybe they had found it. So back to arrivals to make a file, hey It’s always worth asking, right?? And as miracle would happen the bus driver that bussed me from the SATA A310 to the airport had actually found it! 30 minutes later I had it back, all thumbs up for this one! At this time it was 13.35. Time to make it back to the rather cramped and crowded security line, after quite a bit of a wait I was let trough and made my way back to gate 116. Here I found a new plane who had recently arrived from Oporto as TP 1963. Boarding began at around 14.00 for:


Sidenote: As said above, this report would only cover the PDL-LIS sector, for the ones whom are interested I will give some details. For those who are interested in TAP’s service, please see part I where I covered my flight from Brussels to Lisbon.

The flight:
Monday, February 7 2011
Lisbon (LIS/LPPT) – Brussels (BRU/EBBR)
TAP Air Portugal 0614 (Codeshare: Ukraine International 9614, Brussels Airlines 6404, Austrian Airlines 8150)
Airbus A320-214 CS-TNT ‘Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro’ Economy 21A
Built and delivered to TAP Air Portugal on 23 oktober 2009
14.25-14.24 (Gate 116; wheels up on runway 3 at 14.32)
18.15-17.52 (Gate A58 wheels down on runway 30 at 20.49)
Est flying time: 2hrs17mins.
Cruising Altitude: FL 380
Load factor: 60% in Y
Routing: JXIDA 2? DEP, JYIDA-DEI-RIVRO-UN745-ZMR-UN873-VEKIN-V2173-ARVOL,ARVOL 3A ARRIVAL
LIS-BOD-CDG-BRU%0D%0A&RANGE=&PATH-COLOR=red&PATH-UNITS=km&PATH-MINIMUM=&MARKER=1&SPEED-GROUND=&SPEED-UNITS=kts&RANGE-STYLE=best&RANGE-COLOR=navy&MAP-STYLE=" target="_blank">http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?PATH=L...mp;RANGE-COLOR=navy&MAP-STYLE=
Personal statistics
141th registered flight.
4th flight in 2011
2nd flight on TAP Air Portugal
12th flight on the A320 series aircraft
6th flight on the A320.

And some TAP 614 pictures…



After a fairly uneventfull trip back from Portugal I arrived about 21.00 local time, or 19:00 Ponta Delgada time! Time enroute from Ponta Delgada to my home was exactly 12 hours.


Overall verdict
Loose for catching the A310, I think I was clear in part I or my trip report series about SATA being a really average airline! The return flight to Lisbon did not prove any different, while seating was a bit better the crew was still very cold and distant, even on this half full flight! If you are an airline nut who is dying to catch the A310 I would say go for it. But besides that, I really would not recommend SATA for airline travel! The Azores however are great place off the beaten path to visit and would recommend it to everyone

To end my verdict of this trip I would like to give an extra applause to the Lisbon ground staff for actually finding and returning a simple piece of paper which I assumed never to be found!!

Remarks.


SATA Internacional 0120: (Total: 73%)

Departure: 60% (Nice and modern airport)
Aircraft cleanliness : 70% (Aircraft was clean en kept clean despite it’s age)
Seat Comfort: 70% (better than it’s sistership TKN)
Crew: 40% (Not impressed: very cool and disant. Did the job and nothing more.)
Catering: 80% (Decent.. bread was warm and fruit was fresh)
Arrival: 100% (Very impressed by the ground staff who handled the loss of the paper )


As a bonus I would like to give a list of regs I spotted in Ponta Delgada and Lisbon:

PDL:
CS-TREI
CS-TKD
CS-TKO
CS-TGV
CS-TRF

LIS:
CS-TGV
CS-TTS
HB-IJX
UP-BNX
CS-TOI
CS-TNI
CS-TJF
CS-TKM
CS-TKN
CS-TNT
CS-TJE


Total facts on this trip
2 New registrations (CS-TGV and CS-TNT)

Thank you for viewing! As usual, comments and as feedback are appreciated.

Next trip report:
Au-revoir Continental!



Past trip reports
SATA, The Azores And The A310! Part I (by MSS658 Oct 16 2011 in Trip Reports)
Sun, Snow, Rain And ... Lufthansa! (by MSS658 Sep 4 2011 in Trip Reports)
Propping Around The Upstate! (by MSS658 Aug 7 2011 in Trip Reports)
US Airways And Irregular Operations! (by MSS658 Jul 17 2011 in Trip Reports)
Lufthansa, There Is No Better Way To Fly! (by MSS658 Jul 5 2011 in Trip Reports)
A Short Hop On A Big Bird! (by MSS658 Feb 27 2011 in Trip Reports)
A West Side Flight On The East Side! (by MSS658 Jan 9 2011 in Trip Reports)
Wifi And Condensation On US Airways! (by MSS658 Dec 10 2010 in Trip Reports)
Air Canada, North America's Hidden Jewel? (by MSS658 Nov 6 2010 in Trip Reports)
A Ride With A Rare Blue Bird! (by MSS658 Oct 31 2010 in Trip Reports)
US Airways A333's.Are They Really That Bad? Part 2 (by MSS658 Oct 23 2010 in Trip Reports)
US Airways A330-300's. Are They Really That Bad? (by MSS658 Oct 16 2010 in Trip Reports)