Carfield From United States of America, joined Dec 2003, 1727 posts, RR: 9 Posted (3 months 2 weeks 6 days 14 hours ago) and read 1806 times:
Malmo Aviation Trip Report January 2013
As promised, this is my trip report on an interesting regional airline, Malmo Aviation, based in Sweden. I have read a few reports in airliners.net before and am fascinated with its fleet of Avro RJ-85s and 100s, as well as flying into these two regional airports in Sweden – Stockholm Bromma and Malmo Sturup. I ended up using Stockholm Bromma as my base, as it has a nice airport hotel, Best Western Plus, which was a short five minutes walk from the terminal, and I could fly there on Finnair (well FlyBe Nordic in reality, which is basically a trick to ask you to pay full price for a low cost airline service). Anyway, it is only an hour from Helsinki to Bromma. This trip report will cover this quick roundtrip between Stockholm and Bromma.
Stockholm Bromma Airport – basically a small terminal with a food court, few check-in desks, an airline lounge called Yellow Room (Priority Pass has entry, as well as all the elites of Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa, and Finnair, who fly their flights), two baggage claims, a convenient store, and a few counters. Inside the small secured area, there is a coffee shop and a duty free shop.
Public area of Stockholm Bromma Airport
Self-service Check-in Kiosk here at Bromma
Flight Information Display System
Yellow Room Operated by Malmo Express – a basic lounge with limited self-service beverages, and light snacks
There are basically all bus gates here at Stockholm Bromma and the whole check-in process is almost all automated. However I have a minor complaint, as there are no English announcements. I have no idea on what is going on, especially our flight had a delay boarding till 7:34am.
I believe Malmo only has one or two of the smaller RJ-85s, and I am lucky to fly one of them this morning. SS-DJO is a 1993 frame delivered originally to Crossair, and then transferred to Transwede.
The only picture that comes out okay during these daybreak hours…
Malmo Aviations operates a mono cabin with basically six abreast seating with 30 inches of legroom. There is no advanced seat assignment and on both flights, I boarded after from the aft stairs (yes TF uses both front and aft stairs for boarding and deplaning). I managed to get an empty middle seat on both sector. However, both flights are pretty full with few scattered middle seats. The legroom is pretty tight but for 60 minutes, it is okay.
Boarding was completed in nine minutes, as no one is carrying the kitchen sink on the flight. You can one free check-in bag on all TF flights. Plus there are many commuters. One advantage of flying in and out of small airports is the short ground time. We took off at 7:57am, for the short fifty-two minutes flight to Malmo with a cruising attitude of 30,000feet.
Cabin service was very impressive especially morning flights. Seven minutes after takeoff, two F/As are rolling out the snack carts, which features a very nice continental breakfast box featuring an orange juice cup, an Actimel Yogurt drink, and a cold meat and cheese platter, and the F/As passed out a basket of warmed bread rolls.
Then there was a round of tea and coffee, followed by another refills in ten minutes.
Hot towels (the same used by most US domestic airlines) were offered after trash was picked up.
Cabin mid-flight
Reading materials in the seat pocket
Lots of advertisement in the tray table
It is pretty amazing for a fifty minutes flight, and there are three F/As servicing the whole cabin. The F/As were very friendly and efficient.
Descent soon began at 8:29am and the sun was finally rising.
Getting ready to land in Malmo
We landed on R/W35 at 8:49am and taxiing time was short, and we were parked at gate 5.
Carfield From United States of America, joined Dec 2003, 1727 posts, RR: 9 Reply 1, posted (3 months 2 weeks 6 days 14 hours ago) and read 1806 times:
Finally some cabin pictures – blue leather seats as I left the plane.
Shot of SE-DJO at MMX
Not a very busy airport
SE-DJO finished his morning duty and was being towed to the maintenance area before the late afternoon rush.
I spotted the arrival of SAS Boeing 737-600 SE-DTH arriving from Stockholm Arlanda airport
Another Malmo Aviation RJ-100 SE-DSY arriving from Bromma – which I thought would service my return, but ended up staying at Bromma for the morning till the afternoon rush!
Carfield From United States of America, joined Dec 2003, 1727 posts, RR: 9 Reply 2, posted (3 months 2 weeks 6 days 14 hours ago) and read 1803 times:
TF 162 MMX-BMA Lv1100 Arr1210 Avro RJ-100 SE-DSS
Exterior of Malmo Sturup Airport
Malmo departure
SAS automated check-in area
Malmo Aviation self check-in area
Malmo Aviation check-in
Exhibition
Malmo Aviation Express Room – small airline lounge, which I can use as a priority pass member, but I skip!
Gate 1 – I took the opportunity to showcase the gate, as it was empty two hours prior to departure.
Pre-takeoff newspapers – Swedish papers only – opened shortly prior to boarding began!
Avro RJ-100 SE-DSS was a plane built at 1994, which was originally delivered to SAM Colombia and then sold to TF at 2001… it arrived from Bromma at 10:04am.
Boarding soon began at 10:43am and I once again used the automatic machine, and used the aft door. The flight was almost full again. It took only seven minutes to board the whole plane.
Carfield From United States of America, joined Dec 2003, 1727 posts, RR: 9 Reply 3, posted (3 months 2 weeks 6 days 14 hours ago) and read 1803 times:
I was very surprised when I entered the plane, as it featured brand new white slimline leather seats. It is still six-abreast but seat pitch is definitely around 30 inches. However with the relocation of magazine pocket, my knee had a bit more room to stretch. Once again I got an empty middle seat.
Cabin shot
Seat pitch
Relocated magazine pocket
Due to the below zero weather, our plane needed deicing. But with the early boarding and small airport operation, we managed to push back three minutes early. WE took off from R/W35 at 11:05am. Flying time was fifty-six minutes with a cruising attitude of 31,000feet.
There was a light refreshment service on this flight, which was a bit disappointed given the generous breakfast offering. One F/A rolled out the cart nine minutes after takeoff, and this time, the F/A passed out a cup with apple, a pack of chocolate cookies, as well as still water cup on demand. Then a second F/A came down the aisle with tea and coffee.
Hot towel was offered again
Descent began at 11:40am and we landed on R/W12 at 12:01pm. We parked at Stand “3” two minutes later.
Exit cabin shot
Brussels Airlines RJ OO-DWE next door
SE-DSS here at Bromma
Another RJ-100 next door
Arrival area – you need to walk to the arrival hall
In conclusion, Malmo Aviation is a very efficient regional airline, and the whole operation runs like a well-oiled clock. The cabin is not luxurious but sufficient for short flights. The new white leather seats are definitely nicer than the older blue leather seats. The OPEN seating arrangement seems to work well on these short flights. I really appreciate the hot towel service and nice refreshment service, especially the morning flights. I paid roughly $200USD for this roundtrip, which is definitely acceptable given how expensive things are in Sweden. I know it is not exciting like the ANA Boeing 787 inaugural or some fancy first class cabins in the top airline. It is still a nice regional airline to report on.
adamspotter From Netherlands, joined Feb 2011, 782 posts, RR: 2 Reply 5, posted (3 months 2 weeks 6 days 5 hours ago) and read 1416 times:
Hi Carfield,
Another enjoyable report with many nice pictures! Malmo Aviation looks impressive on pretty much every report here, sure need to try them out some time soon!
MSS658 From Belgium, joined Oct 2010, 2212 posts, RR: 14 Reply 6, posted (3 months 2 weeks 3 days 7 hours ago) and read 902 times:
Hi carfield
Thanks for bringing us along to MMX, your report looks good.
Nice treat to have the Avro in the log! However the 3-3 seating config looks pretty cramped!
BMA is on the list to go to once.
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