27 reviews
Hello and welcome on board this report, back to 2022 but still up to date as this "original" french domestic flight is still operated by twinjet almost everyday.
We are at the end of June when my partner tells me that she is going on a weekend hike with friends at the beginning of July, leaving me alone at the house for the week-end. I'm not really the guy who will stayed seated on the sofa watching the Tour de France on television.
So I'm looking for an av-geek travel to fly on a special aircraft, it's the first weekend of the school holidays and at Day-20 the prices for tourist connections are already stratospheric.
Looking a little more I see that Twinjet still operate multiple daily return flights on its line between Toulouse and Marseille. No flights on Saturdays but a flight is available on Sunday at the end of the afternoon and in addition the prices are on sale for 112€ (it is possible to have tickets at 79€) enough to add this new airline and new plane to my flightlog.
I initially thought to join Marseille by train for around 40 euros on Sunday morning before Google flight told me that it was possible to join Marseille from Toulouse on Saturday with a night stop in Madrid for 70€ wonderfull !
Except that when booking it was impossible to have the flights I wanted with Iberia. I would therefore book via booking for 5€ more.
Which gives us the following routing:
This connection between the two largest cities of the South of France is not a great success in terms of air links. The 2 important cities are connected by relatively direct ground connections, whether by road or rail although it takes a little more than 4 hours to connect them (we arrive within the limits of the plane).
For a long time operated by HOP using ATR72, Crj-700 or even Erj145, this connection had finally been abandoned before the covid due to the introduction of a double daily flight from Ryanair during the opening of its base in Toulouse in summer 2018.
This Ryanair line will not last long and after a disappointing summer season the line is simply abandoned. We had to wait for the end of the covid crisis to see the little Twin Jet try is luck on the niche market and gradually increase up to 3 daily rotations during the week!
On the flight-report website the combination TwinJet/Beechcraft is well known on the french counterpart of the website but there is a limited number of report on twinjet on english counterpart. It will be the first time that we have a report on this line.
I was thinking to do a short spotting session with this beautiful weather, but the heat wave and the bad heading for takeoffs and landings will discouraged me from starting this hiking trip and it will be a quick return to the freshness air conditioning of the terminal.
Significant work are underway in the center of Marseille airport from what I understand it would be for building a connection between halls A and B of the platform. In any case, expect small access disruptioon in hall B for the moment and for months to come.
The flight display of the day. There is a Ryanair base providing a great variety of destinations, we can note as well the direct flight to Montreal operated by Air Transat in Airbus A321neoLR.
Ground-side of Hall B is definitely not the most pleasant part of the airport with a few small shops not really attractive and crowded cafes although really expensive.
The AF check-in area is also near the Air Corsica and Twin Jet counters, which only will open only 30 minutes before the flight ! Damn I have my trolley to check-in impossible to go Airside for the moment.
There are power outlets available but none of them are working, note the poor cleanliness of the airport. It seemed to me that a homeless person had taken refuge in a corner of the groundside waiting room.
Fortunately, it is possible to take some picture of the airplanes from the groundside part of hall B and we start with luxury with this Falcon 7X from Global Jet Luxembourg which will start a flight to Paris le Bourget.
Another airline probably less known to operate between Marseille and Algeria is none other than the Spanish low-cost Vueling with this Airbus A319 from Algiers
Return to Istanbul for this Turkish Boeing 737-800 with a little over an hour late.
My previous flight aircraft is getting ready for take off in the direction of its HUB in Madrid, perfectly on time.
Another aircraft ready for departure, this Ryanair Boeing 737-800 heading to Nantes, it will be one of the last photos that my camera lens which will stop functioning that day…
A Royal Air Force Airbus A400M is taxiing.
As mentioned above, check-in begins exactly 30 minutes before boarding the flight. We can see that the service is really suited for business passengers wanting to optimize their travel time. The friendly but unsmiling agent will quickly register my trolley.
Once relieved of my suitcase I went air-side. Twin Jet offers priority lane through security checks to all its passengers. There won't be any need for it on this Sunday afternoon there were literally 2 people in front of me. Airside we find a much more bigger, brighter and cleaner area that I even found pleasant.
The view of the aircraft at the gate is more than adequate. A silhouette that as now disappear from French tarmacs with the definitive withdrawal of the Crjs from the HOP fleet at the end of 2022.
On the other side of the terminal, we can see this Boeing 737-800 from the green Transavia which will soon return to its Nantes base.
The lady in charge of check-in is now on the other side and she is in charge of boarding, which will take place perfectly on time at gate 41A.
Boarding pass old school
The usual joke of the German rental company SIXT which has personalized its advertising campaign according to French local city names, which I find rather pleasant
Unsurprisingly boarding will be done by paxbus, even if the flight is full, all passengers fit easily into a single bus with practically a seat for everyone.
Along the way we meet these Air Corsica aircraft which provide many connection of territorial continuity with Corsica island even if in these first days of July I imagine that tourists represent a large part of the customers of XK flights .
We continue our visit on the tarmac until we reach the cargo appron where a large number of private jets are parked like this Boeing 737-500 from Comlux Aviation Malta which arrived a few hours earlier from Toulon. And which hides behind its wing the small Beechcraft 1900-D from Twinjet.
There is also many cargo aircrafts there, such as this Boeing 737-300F from the Spanish airline Swiftair.
We are finally getting closer to our plane of the day while our bus makes almost the complete turn around it to park itself on the left side of the cabin.
Our aircraft of the day is a Beechcraft 1900-D registered F-GLNF and almost 29 years old, she first flew in Romania with Air Antares then LAR then rapidly left for France with Flandres Air then R-lines before joining the fleet of Twinjet in 2004.
The only criticism I could make of Twinjet would be the livery, which is really boring… but it's a clearly minor defect. when you see other companies spending millions on new graphic charts without taking care of the product… By the way close-up on one of the 2 P&W PT-6 turbines that equip our airplane.
The pointed nose is typical of Beechcrafts and as much as I find the Kingair series to look nice, I find that the 1900-D is really ugly…
Fuselage shoots while the last bags are loaded into the small cargo hold located at the rear of the A/C.
I join my seat located in row 7 on the right side of the aircraft while our co-pilot is going to do his pre-flight inspection.
Unlike most of the Twinjet flights reported on the website, there is a cabin crew member on board, in reality an additional on-board personnel, nice for a first experience as a cabin crew for young people still studying and which makes the flight easier to manage for the pilots and also increases safety on board by avoiding multiple movements of passengers in the cabin during service on board
Back on the seat, I will not lie, I've experienced more comfortable seats and with a bigger pitch even on small airplane. It doesn't look like a business layout despite the 1x1 configuration.
Engines are started briging a lot of noise inside the cabin. Avgeek will be in heaven the random passenger probably a little less.
Always strange to see the cockpit from the cabin especially for "young passengers" like me who only started flying after the terrorist attacks of September 11th.
We begin our taxiing for a departure on runway 13L, passing next to few aircrafts like this Saab 340 freighter from the Latvian company RAF avia. It also has a quick change aircraft which provides passenger flights from Geneva for the start-up airline "Odyssey".
Or this huge Ethiopian A350-900 which is having a nice afternoon sunbathing on the concrete of Marignane before leaving in the opposite direction to return to Ethiopia with a stopover in Geneva, the flight being a triangular one. Unfortunately for the passengers of the evening flight, it will be diverted to Bahir Dar, probably because of the weather conditions in Addis.
We continue our taxiing next to the runway passing next to this Air Hamburg Embraer Legacy 650 jet for (as its name does not indicate) Berlin! Sorry for the framing of the photo, the pilots really taxied very quickly and it is true that, like a road vehicle, we feel more the vibrations and movements of the taxiway in a small planes rather than in a big Airbus .
Runway is available, let's go !
We are quickly and without difficulty in the air. We flew over our former parking stand. As well as all the Marignane terminals.
And Airbus helicopter factories.
We quickly gain altitude above the hills of Pennes-Mirabeau
Just before making a right turn offering me nice view on Phocaean city and the Frioul islands
Zoom on the heart of the city with the old port, the Vélodrome Stadium and the "Bonne mère" chruch all on the same photo!
A lot of leisure boat activities at the end of the July afternoon around the Frioul islands
Unfortunately once the U-turn has been made, I will mostly see blue on the horizon.
I'm complaining but in fact I sometimes see the coastline here, the beaches with crystal clear water near Sainte-Croix. Or a part of the Rhône delta next to Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône
The short route followed by our flight of the day. FL180 it is rare to have such low cruising altitudes with our regular jets flights.
The safety card has suffered a little but it is still there.
Our young cabin crew will ask at every passengers their drink orders and will serve each of us, a VIP service but it must be said that it is impossible to circulate a trolley because of the narrowness of the aisle but also of the presence of the main wing spars in the middle of the cabin.
We will note a snack with of a small bag of peanuts rather unusual in the air.
We find the coast at the level of the Etang de Thau, we can also guess the oyster beds and the Canal du Midi which opens into the lake.
Our beginning of descent coincides with our overflying of the ground as Béziers passes under our wings.
General view of the cabin, which I we will qualify as original both in terms of the shape of the fuselage designed to be able to be "standed", the absence of storage for luggage or the originality of the lighting system, to summarize we are far from the commercial aviation standards but it's lovely.
We leave the Mediterranean coast which now heading towards the South and Catalonia.
Winglet of the day! It must be said that the appendix is quite modest on this kind of airplane.
In the cockpit there is a lot of activity, the flight is short so there is not really any calm cruising time. I'm a bit far to see the work of our pilots, but we can still see many "old-fashioned" instruments in this cockpit designed in the 80s.
It is now the hilly forests of the "Haut-Languedoc Regional Natural Park" that pass under our wings between the "Aude" and the "Tarn" counties.
Passing over the lake of Saint-Ferréol on the border between the counties of Haute-Garonne and Tarn, this artificial lake is the main supply basin for the Canal du Midi which connects Toulouse to the Mediterranean sea. Being there recently the water level was ridiculously low.
In the distance, you can see the Montagne Noire airfield, a major gliding site in the South-West France.
Our descent continues above the fertile plains of the Haute-Garonne and we find the approach axis for runway 32 which is close to the direction taken by the A61 motorway next to the small town of Baziège.
We are approaching Toulouse from the south which makes us fly over the research center of the pharmaceutical laboratory Pierre Fabre.
Being on the left side of the plane, I would not benefit from the best view of Toulouse, on my side it is rather the towers of the Mirail and Reynerie districts.
Landed safely and ahead of schedule on runway 32R of Blagnac airport.
Runway that we leave quickly, our small airplane using only less than a quarter of the 3250m of the immense strip built to allow the takeoff of the air giants assembled in the Airbus factory.
Passing in front of hall C where flight IB8741 is boarding for Madrid, the circle is completed 24 hours after leaving Toulouse here I am back at my home airport!
Twinjet flights are parked on a remote area due to lack of space in contact. Our aircraft will spend the night in Toulouse.
Unsurprisingly with so few passengers disembarking will be quick, I'm in no hurry and would be the last to leave the aircraft and get on the bus which is already waiting for us next to the aircraft.
Our captain will be the last to leave the aircraft which is prepared in order to be able to spend the night quietly on the Toulouse tarmac. But the bus will not wait to let me see all this preparation, it is indeed time to reach the terminal.
The bus ride to reach Terminal A is only a few hundred meters.
As soon as you get out of the bus, there is a luggage belt a little away from the common path where the few checked bags are already starting to pop in. However, I would be the only one waiting and picking up my suitcase, the other passengers having followed the flow and missed belt #1… I would meet some of them on my way to the exit and give the information to a couple who seemed to be looking for where retrieve his luggage.
Last photo of our plane of the day. The handler's little car will pick up the crew.
The neighboring aircraft is also a Twinjet Beechcraft 1900-D which will operate the next day's flight to Metz-Nancy.
Hard to say that this beautiful machine that is the Crj-1000 gives way on many regional routes to these little ugly oldies B-1900Ds… This HOP Crj will ensure the connection this Friday evening to Lyon (its first flight of the weekend).
I'm heading for the exit
On the way, the Occitanie region advertises the main tourist sites that abound in this magnificent region of South-West France.
A hundred meters further here I am ground-side where it's really quiet, it must be said that this exit located in front of the Starbucks is not the busiest of the airport most passengers arriving threw hall D.
Flight indication displays showing arrival of the evening with the Ryanair from Mallorca canceled and some delayed flights.
Direction the tram to go home quietly at the very beginning of the evening.
This is where this report ends see you soon on a new report !
Original flight that this little trip in a Beechcraft 1900-D in the south of France which became the smallest plane that I have taken for a commercial flight. The line is a short transversal route, the plane shows its limit due to having to pass all the airport controls which taking time.
Twinjet:
+ Everything is done to ensure that the flight is as fast as possible with the aim of meeting the wishes of business customers, check-in 30 minutes before departure, fast track for all passengers...
- The comfort of the Beech it's definitely not the best for the regular traveler (no toilets on board).
+ The 100% avgeek experience
Marseilles:
- The groundside area of hall B is dark, not very big and not very clean even if the view of the planes remains correct (which made me happy during my waiting time).
+ Efficient security controls and check in
Toulouse:
- Transfer from the airplane by bus
+ Fast and efficient passenger path
+ Public transport offer adapted to the size of the airport
2 Comments
A very unique flight experience and nice to see a free service on such a short flight.
Thanks for sharing!
See you !
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