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!
