Short and quick business trip to Nantes. Flying Iberia, Air Nostrum and Vueling.
SCQ-MAD. Early flight on a IB A320 with new seats being fitted and no service at all. Boring and sleeping the 45 minutes hop
Flying Air Nostrum (Iberia Regional) is a pure luxury. Meals, business class all the way in all the segments. Smooth and sunny, and only 20 people on board in the 90 minutes hop. Delicious breakfast.
Nantes is a bit boring. No excitement. Only a Air France Constellation, and many regionals from Air France Group.
Only 24 hours in Nantes and fly back to Barcelona. Only 60 minutes and full meal. Choice between tortenilli al pesto (stuffed with ricotta) or Seafood stuffed peppers. The fight attendants took too long in starting service, so we had to rush.
I had to wait for a long in BCN, to get my Vueling flight to Santiago. Late night, no turbulence and some sleeping after a small drink on board.
By: keltic - 21st February 2008 at 16:51
Well, Steve. I think that they are in a middle of an identity crisis. They have been cornered by low costs, Universal Airlines (by AF and AEA) is about to start operations, and CRJ is not really cost effective.
They can´t purchase bigger aircraft since they have a deal with Iberia pilots trade unions not to go for bigger planes. They have been trying to introduce CRJ900 in many profitable niches, and putting fares down. For the moment, they have the Iberia protective umbrella, and are trying to diversify business by participating in Clickair.
Spains is not disorganized yard where nobody has definite plans where they should go to. So there´s a deep feeling of uncertainty. Air Nostrum is a fine airline, so I am sure if they will be able to survive. They make profits but their market is shrinking. They even have many problems in finding niches to put their planes into.
When someone finds there´s traffic, a low cost gets in and they have to quit, or use a Clickair flight. Now they are very dependant on subsidies. If you fly them the fuselage has advertisments, the seat a different one, they handed out brochures of a different thing, advertising in the tissues, or magazine, and flight attendants tell…”fly to…..”, A kind of a regional big flying piece of advertisment.
But they are not getting more, since many regions are feed up of spending money on an airline which offers high fares which are no accesible by most middle class spaniards. fares have gone down, but not enough. If the put them down more and more, they surely die.
By: steve rowell - 18th February 2008 at 22:42
Leather seats. The pitch is really good, and flight attendants are usually really nice. The problem is usually fares: too high.
As they say..you only get what you pay for!!
By: keltic - 16th February 2008 at 17:00
Oh yes, definitely. It has been awarded many times as the best regional airline in Europe. Even in a 30 minutes hop they serve you full service with a choice of stuffed croissants, or even gourmet sandwitches.
Sometimes they give a glass of champagne after take off, hot towels before meals, sweets before landing.
Leather seats. The pitch is really good, and flight attendants are usually really nice. The problem is usually fares: too high.
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February 16, 2008 at 2:04 pm