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:

• When I joined the company, in 2008
• When I got my permanent contract, in 2011
• When I started flying long haul, in 2014
  

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

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.

Air Caraïbes A350

Can you spot the Eiffel Tower?

Back in Porto, before leaving to Geneva

And what a beautiful sight seeing the Alps again, while returning in the early morning from Geneva!

It's the most wonderful time of the year

Münich, December 2023

It's been 3 months since I moved back to the European fleet in my airline. And I must say it was a wise decision to take. The first time I gave it a thought was in 2019 when I started to feel really tired and my personal routine and energy strongly impacted with all those long red eye flights. After the full recovery of air travel in 2022, I decided in October that year to ask for a fleet change which was now granted.

This was supposed to be an uneventful turnaround flight to Munich. We were flying on our company's retrojet with tail number CS-TJR. As a curiosity I was a working crew member on the first revenue flight of our first retrojet - the Airbus A330 CS-TOV which is now flying for Air Canada. I was also a passenger on the first revenue flight of this Airbus A321neo retrojet. And this was my first time as a working crew member on CS-TJR. I think the retro livery suits the A321neo even better.

It was snowing in Munich when we arrived and we had to fly a holding pattern before landing. Quite for sure we would need a de-icing procedure before our departure back to Lisbon. After the passengers bound to Lisbon were boarded we started getting delays by the air traffic control.

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Munich Airport

While we waited for our departure slot, the snowfall started to increase and one could see many snow plow trucks working without stopping on the runway and taxiways. Things didn't seem pretty for us, although the outside scenario was absolutely astonishing and unusual for me.

After a very long wait with all passengers boarded, and short after we were given a three more hours wait, the airport suddenly suspended all operations and flights were cancelled.

This poor Lufthansa A320 wasn't going anywhere too...

And so we also had to leave to the hotel... None of us was prepared for this unforeseen circumstance.

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Freising

Next day, Munich Airport remained shut down and we allowed ourselves to explore a true winter wonderland in Freising. Despite the flights disruption and all the chaos... wow, what a beautiful sight!

Freising Marienplatz

Only later that day we got the information that the airport would reopen at 6am.

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Return Flight

It took a lot of procedures and time to reactivate our frozen aircraft and remove all the accumulated snow.

And we finally made it home safe :)

This episode made me remember an older one when I experienced a huge snowfall in Milan (Malpensa) 14 years ago. That time I was lucky enough to escape the bad weather and go back home on the same day. You can read about it here.

Last flight of the year

Miami Beach, December 2024

I've been on reserve this whole month of December but I was lucky to spend Christmas at home. After Christmas I was called for a flight to Miami.

Low temperatures unusual for Miami and lots of rain made me remember when I was caught off guard, in January 2018, by that time because of the cold wave/polar vortex shift in North America. This time I was prepared with proper clothing.

This was my room view and I took the picture before started to rain.

Aviation geeks will guess just what I thought when I was given this room number. A proper vintage Boeing of course...

As a curiosity, from my room I could see that almost nothing was left from the iconic Miami Beach hotel 'Deauville Beach Resort', which was closed and abandoned since 2017 due to a fire and damage caused by hurricane Irma. Deauville Beach Resort hosted several celebrities, including the band 'Beatles'.

This was a very short layover and the next day after our arrival, we left to our home base, Lisboa.

Airbus A330-941, tail number CS-TUN, named "D. Fuas Roupinho" was the aircraft on the return flight.

Christmas lights in Lisboa

Lisboa, December 2022

Yesterday I went to see the Christmas lights in my hometown. I arrived at the downtown yet before sunset. And... even if it's winter, don't we still have a wonderful sunset?

Praça do Comércio

And after the sunset, everthing was beautifully lighted up.

Avenida da Liberdade

Largo do Camões

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas!

Christmas in Rome

Rome, December 2023

This was one of my saddest Chrismas Eves ever, in 2013. Our flight to Rome with less than 30 pax onboard was seriously delayed due to a strike of the handling services and when we arrived way past midnight, one waiter was waiting alone to serve us dinner at the hotel. He was probably having an even sadder Christmas than us... And that made me sad too.

Next day, the 25th of December, in the afternoon, it was time to go back to my home base, Lisboa. I spotted this Alitalia A330 parked next to us in Fiumicino Airport, by the days when I was longing to have a promotion to the WB fleet.

 Today I'm longing to go back to the NB fleet and to the european flights...