Airport shots, August 2025
It was nice to spot this retro livery at Porto, tail number PH-YHD:
One day later, doing a turnaround to Venice, this Aegean's A320neo was parked side by side at Marco Polo International Airport:
Showing posts with label Porto. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Porto. Show all posts
My return to Rio de Janeiro, 21 years later
Rio de Janeiro, August 2014
Rio de Janeiro is one of our intercontinental destinations with more weekly flights, so it was without surprised that is showed up in my first widebody roster, back in August 2014. And to tell the truth I was anxious to go back to Rio after more than 20 years of absence. Rio de Janeiro used to be one regular holidays destination with my parents, when I was a kid, during the eighties and early nineties. Those were the L-1011 days when I developed a passion for that aircraft in particular and aviation in general. Last time I was there was in 1993.
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Airbus A330-200
CS-TOG
After being dead-headed to Porto and spend there a night, it was time to take our beautiful A330-200 to "Cidade Maravilhosa". With tail number CS-TOG this aircraft was named "Bartolomeu de Gusmão", the same name given to one of our ex-L-1011s (CS-TED). The following pictures were taken at Franciso Sá Carneiro Airport (Porto) before boarding started:
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São Conrado
By that time we used to stay in São Conrado neighbourhood in the southern part of the city. The location was far from ideal since we had to take a cab to Ipanema or Copacabana. Otherwise we would be pretty much isolated in the hotel area. From my room I could spot "Hotel Nacional" an architecture masterpiece by famous Oscar Niemeyer. By then, one could see it was pretty much abandoned and in bad shape. These days it was restored to its previous glory and running as a hotel again.
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Ipanema
Since this was my long-awaited return to Rio, the hotel location didn't prevent me to go to Ipanama Beach and spend there a few hours. The weather wasn't fantastic but it was winter time in the south hemisphere. However, cloudy skies and rainy days became an unfortunate constant everytime I went to Rio de Janeiro all over these years.
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Return Flight
My first layover in Rio de Janeiro wasn't that long. It was around 24 hours before I had to go back to Portugal. So, beside the beach and good food there wasn't opportunity to do much more. Flying on a more modern A330-200 - tail number CS-TOL - we would arrive in Lisbon on a gorgeous summer day.
Portugália Airlines Embraer 145 II
Onboard & Porto, August 2014
The following photos were taken in August 2014, in my first scheduled month doing long-haul flights in the widebody fleet.
This was a dead head flight to Porto where I would rest for one night before flying to Rio de Janeiro. In the next photo I captured the Airbus A330-200 CS-TOG that would take me to Rio on the following day:
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| Airbus A330-200 CS-TOG |
Next photos, short after take-off, with port side engine and then a view of Ota Air Base:
And yet another Air Base - Monte Real:
Overflying Figueira da Foz:
Speedbrakes deployed during our approach to Porto:
And finally my room view in Porto.
Paris. First Class. International
Paris, September 2023
When my current company launched their new image in 2005, they used the motto Red and Green - Out of the Blue to introduce their new colors. And since I joined the company I've been using that sentence to mark the milestones in my career in this blog:
This post could have been another "Red and Green - Out of the Blue" since I moved back to the European fleet in September this year for the sake of my own peace of mind. I did not become a senior crew member yet - usually people go back to the A320 family when they attain the purser position - but I decided to return on my own will.
Since I left the ACMI scene, I believed I was totally a long haul type. I had a long 6 years wait until that happened again and 4 more years to fly exclusively on the A330/A340 fleet. And I was truly happy when I started doing long haul flights in 2014. But... working conditions have changed. I changed. I'm not anymore the happy kid in his twenties discovering the world while working. I'm still a happy guy but priorities are not the same anymore. Today I value a lot my time spent in my home base and I'm closer to anything that looks like more to a 9 to 5 job than the other way around.
So... last September I started to rediscover the joys of medium haul and Europe!
And while I certainly took advantage of my layovers in Europe to visit sites of interest during my first tenure in the medium haul, it now seems so foolish that I never visited Rungis in Paris, our most frequent night stop/layover in the medium haul and my first one on this comeback. But it's never too late to feel young again!
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Ville de Rungis
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Paris-Porto
Paris-Porto
Next day I would return as an extra crew to Porto and since the incoming flight was a little bit delayed I enjoyed the airport traffic in Orly airport, in a dedicated rest area with a view to the tarmac.
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| Air Caraïbes A350 |
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| Can you spot the Eiffel Tower? |
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| Back in Porto, before leaving to Geneva |
And what a beautiful sight seeing the Alps again, while returning in the early morning from Geneva!
Flying with TAP Express
Aviation Shots, March 2016
It was not a long time ago that I went to the airport, to the spot "behind the fences", to capture the arrival of the first ATR 72-600 for TAP Express.
Last 27th March, the new air shuttle service between Lisbon and Porto - called Ponte Aérea - finally took off. Although I was already making plans to try the new service I didn't expect to do it on the second day of its operation! In fact, I was challenged by a close friend to be at the airport as soon as possible and get a flight to see the new ATRs in action.
Until then, my first and only experience flying on an ATR was almost 10 years ago, between Lisbon and Casablanca, a flight that was part of a memorable mission between Dakar and Brussels that has yet to be written. The aircraft was an ATR 42-300, with registration CN-RLF, operating for Regional Air Lines. I clearly remember it had a really old appearence with cabin panels that turned yellow over time, some of them misaligned. It seems that this ATR was scrapped in 2011. The flight time of FN231 was roughly 1h45, part of it over a large extension of water. But now I was excited to know what an almost brand new -600 series would look like!
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Boarding
The "Ponte Aérea" service has dedicated check-in counters and a fast way for security control in Lisbon Airport. We got our boarding cards without delay and went to the boarding gate where our aircraft was arriving. Initially I thought we would go on the ATR with registration CS-DJA which was parked in a more remote position. But suddenly I saw CS-DJC parking near our gate - for sure, it would be this one our aircraft!
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| CS-DJC arriving with DJA behind |
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| ATR42 and 72 markings on the tarmac |
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| Operated by White coloured by you |
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| Being serviced... |
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| View of the other ATR 72 in operation from my seat |
As I always do every time I fly on a new type, I grabbed the safety card to check how to open the doors in case of emergency, even before the safety briefing was given by the crew. The ATR 72 has three different types of emergency exits: two windows in the front with a pretty standard actuation; the LH rear door with the integral airstair; and the simple RH rear door with a different opening mechanism.
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| Safety Instructions |
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First impression
It was a completely different passengers' cabin that I found compared to that one of my previous ATR experience. Well, no surprise after all! The totally new, fresh and clean interior design of the -600 series really make a difference! The "slimline" type seats were comfortable and even if this is a turboprop, I found the cabin very spacious with generous legroom. The cabin is wider than that of the Embraer 145 with a lot more stowage capacity in the overhead bins.
The cabin crew staff hired by White was using the same uniforms of TAP with the following differences: the female scarf has the "express" inscription and the male necktie has a red background instead of the dark blue of the mainline.
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Flight to Porto
We took off from runway 21 for a one-hour flight to Porto. And, in fact, there is nothing special or different to tell about this flight from many others I did in the past on this route. We could even forget that we are flying on a turboprop airplane. OK, the flight time may be slightly longer but without making a big difference. Beside, due to the active runway being RWY21, we took off heading south when we wanted to go north!
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| Window view while climbing to cruise level |
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| Engine exhaust |
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ATR 72 Cabin
And now it's time for some photos of the cabin! The blue bulkheads make us remember that these aircraft came from Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras.
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| TAP Express sticker over the blue bulkhead |
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| Zoom out... |
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| For sure this is a bright and modern cabin! |
While seeing the seat row indication I found this a curious combination:
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| "DC 3" |
"DC 3" makes me remember the Dakota, the very first aircraft type flown by TAP, also driven by propellers, although TAP only operated the military versions C-47 and C-53 adapted for passenger service.
The small galley where the carts are stowed is located at the rear end of the aircraft, behind the last row of the right side.
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Propeller Fun
Being seated near the propeller and using my smartphone to take photos resulted in some funny pictures with that weird effect that I also experience when flying light Cessna aircraft as a pilot.
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Approach & Landing
As this was a really short flight, we didn't have to wait too long to start our descent and find that the weather at our destination was miserable... However, no turbulence was felt during our approach.
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| Short final rwy 17/LPPR |
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| Touchdown! |
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| Reverse thrust |
We parked into our assigned position, the engines were stopped and soon the disembark was in progress ending the first part of this experimental trip!
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| Engine shut down |
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Lunch in Porto
Without a great margin of time to go to the city before our return flight, we decided to have lunch at the airport, with the check-in already done. But at least we went for a typical francesinha from Porto!
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| yum yum! |
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Return Flight
We were lucky with that fact that CS-DJA was assigned for TP1951 flight so we were able to fly both ATR 72s doing the air shuttle, on the same day!
We saw the CS-DJA landing with the weather conditions getting worse. For a brief period, the two ATRs met together again, this time at Porto.
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| CS-DJC parked |
For the return flight I got the seat 18B in the very last row of the aircraft. This time the flight was almost complete with a load factor over 90%. With both take-off and landing facing south, the flight time was shortened to 45 minutes.
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| Smart colours on CS-DJA, seen while boarding the airplane |
Overall, I think the ATR 72 is the perfect aircraft choice for these short flights and soon two more will join the air shuttle, providing TAP's passengers with a new and more flexible service between the two main cities of Portugal!