YYZ to PMV and return via Skyservice

Well where do we start. First off at 6’3 and 220lbs I would never have booked on Skyservice (through Sunquest) knowing that they were flying A320’s to this location (Margarita Island / Venezuela: Porlamar Airport) in what appears to be cattle car loadings – for 5 and a half hours. I sware I may never ski again – my knees felt like the knee caps had been shifted and dented!

My thoughts were that we had less room to move while seated then solitary confined inmates have while being transported to court. Their food would be better as well… Is 186 seats on an A320 the maximum?

Landing was a little wild. All that heat comimg up from what is essentially a desert island made final a bit of a bucking, rolling affair right until the mains touched down. I also noticed that the two piece flap unit (the outer) was vibrating badly – at least about an inch in arc. This can’t be good long term…

We left Toronto ahead of an AirTransit A330 and found we had arrived AFTER the 330 had been on the ground for 10 minutes.

Problem 2. Why wouldn’t these travel companies talk to each other? Why try to wedge appox 470 people into a tiny 2000 sq ft customs hall with only 5 officers working? Wouldn’t an hour between these flights work better? Well that gave me an hour to get used to the 34C heat! (from -1C in Toronto)

The pat down by hand was interesting. My wife had her breasts felt up rather well and said she felt like a cig after! They even felt her groin area and I did notice the customs woman was more diligent with the females then the male customs agent was with males. Maybe I wasn’t his type? I guess they like that hands on personal treatment here? It seems that anti-drug interdictions are the reason – not anti terror.

Then the baggage belt broke down with lots of people in uniform running around doing not much of anything. 30 mins snuffed out of my life later and we’re off to the… Xray machine. Huh? Yup, lets xray bags that have already been xrayed in Toronto. Oh and lets have the machine breakdown every four bags. My swiming trucks must have glowed for a few days after…

Somewhere around two hours later we’re on a bus.

Well at least the holiday was fine. Note to Americans: They don’t like you. They quite like the American dollar however. Pick the Bahama’s instead.

The return to the airport was another line up here and there and wait affair and we had the joy to part with a $46US departure tax each!

For most of the trip even while laying on the beach, I was dreading the flight back as I thought of the moment when the person ahead of me would decide to tilt their seat back. Would I be able to walk off the plane after?

Running into 100mph headwinds as we were told by the 1st officer, we late getting into Toronto so the torture was longer then the way down.

Gee, remember when it was cool to travel? sigh. Next time I’ll try another group who don’t charter 10 or 15 year old 320’s and stuff us in like Sardines.

Edit: Just did a tail# search on C-GTDK
First Flight: May 25, 1992
Skyservice date: Jan 11, 2004
Formerly: N338RX, N302ML, D-AFTI
A320-231
338th built
Tail damage from runway contact in 2003.