Hello Everyone,
After being a big fan of flight-report.com for a long time, I’ve decided to contribute some of my own experiences to this group.
This is my first report from a short business trip to Timisoara, Romania.
It’s a very nice city located in the western part of Romania, near the Hungarian and the Serbian borders.
The airport itself is very small and located about 10km from the city center. There are 2 Terminals, one domestic and one international, even though it’s hard to call them terminals. It looks more like a big hangar divided into 2 sections.
But, it has an historical artifact from a bygone era. The main FID is a mechanical board with switching panels, letters and numbers that take you back into the good old seventies.
The airport itself is not a very busy one and there are two separate security checks areas: for domestic and international flights. The domestic waiting area is just a plain hall with chairs and has a small kiosk that sells drinks and some sandwiches. The international part is a bit bigger, as it spreads over two floors and even has a small duty free shop.
The plane arrived from Bucharest around 14:00 and it was an ATR-72 as was scheduled. Tarom usually operates the morning and evening flights with B737 or A318, but this being not a very busy midday flight, it usually gets the honor to be served by an ATR. I love these prop planes, as the experience you get on them is much nicer than on the bigger jets. I’ve been flying many years on this route, but it was years ago that I flew on an ATR, which I remembered as being fun.
Our plane for today was YR-ATI, a 10 year old plane. Tarom usually flies these planes on internal routes from Bucharest to other cities in Romania.
Boarding was called just after the plane was offloaded and the passengers moved into a holding area with open views of the runway. This being a very small airport, the passengers get to walk to and from the planes.
Some spottings during the wait:
After a short wait in the holding area we were released to the field and a long line was formed at the entrance of the plane. It was still being cleaned and serviced and we waited near the the plane. It was a beautiful day, so no complaints from me.
I always like to be the last one boarding the plane, so i had the most fresh air on the tarmac. The cabin itself is in a good condition and was clean and well maintained. The only surprise for me was the size of the overhead bins. They were tiny. I could not fit my small backpack lengthwise and had to turn it around.
The seats are covered in leather and the pitch is ok. Doesn’t feel cramped at all. After flying for so long on lcc carriers, realizing that a correct pitch and a seat recline still exist was a nice reminder.
The pitch
The takeoff was very smooth and and the cabin was very quiet during the flight. The crew ( only 2 of them) started the service about 20 Minutes after takeoff which included free drinks and a small cheese sandwich. Tarom does not offer any buy on board service.
After the crew finished the food and drink service it was just a smooth sailing towards Bucharest. The cabin was very quiet. As there is no entertainment option nor wifi, everyone is in charge of his own entertainment.
The landing was smooth and the plane was parked in the remote area of the airport. A bus arrived and drove us to the domestic terminal.
Some other planes parked around. They are the big three of the Romanian air travel companies: Blue Air, Air Bucharest and Tarom.
Bucharest terminal
Thank you for reading.
Welcome to FR Gabi,
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Timisoara is indeed a quite airport and is efficient in terms of that, however they definitely should upgrade the road leading to the airport as that one is full of holes and bumps. Not a pleasant experience to drive with those taxis.
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I'm not entirely sure about your height, but the legroom seems awful for what I'm used to with other ATR carriers, even for an hour flight.
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For a domestic flight, the meal itself is passable indeed, but do they offer a large offer of drinks on the domestic market or is it only juices, water and hot drinks? Cause a lot of carriers have the tendency to serve a very limited offer on drinks on domestic routes.
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Thanks for your report and keep them coming!
Welcome and thanks for your first FR.
RO clearly offers a better service than OK or LO, too bad they aren't profitable so they can grow and offer more connections through OTP.
Thanks for sharing.
I love the old fashionned screen in Timisoara and its old Air France logo.
I remember when I flew to CLJ, the bus was really old fashionned.
Hope, they have improved.
Nice flight report, Thank You!
I can't call this legroom good, It seems that your legs were stuck in the seat in front of you...
About entertainment options on the ATR - It's ok and not special, I never saw ATR with wifi or overhead screens, for short flights it's acceptable in my opinion.
It seems that Tarom offers nice service, You even got small sandwich in this short flight.
In April, I had flight from TLV to PRG with SmartWings and the only thing We've got was water. Flight time was 4 hours approximately! (I need to write the flight reports about the flight, but I can't do It until July)
Welcome, Gadi! How nice to see reports from Romania! The Romanian language has always been intriguing to me, so similar to Spanish sometimes. I'd love to learn it and visit Romania some day.
Looks like it's OK for the amount of passengers. Look at that "Diskoteka Festival" announcement! Wow!! You still dance to Modern Talking!! They were an absolute hit in Chile in the late 80s!! And Ace of Base (though they sound horrible live) And Dr Alban!! "It's - my - life. Toot - toot. It's - my - life..." LOL. Did you know that he is really a doctor? He's a dentist! Ricchi e Poveri, my goodness. What nice memories, let alone Bonney M. Just WOW! And Sabrina!!! "Boys, boys, boys, I'm ready for the good time..." We used to sing "Voy, voy, voy, a ver a mi abuelita; Voy, voy, voy, con una canastita" (I go, I go, I go to see my grandmother; I go, I go, I go, with a little basket") XDDDD I should take a flight to Timisoara right now!
I love that aspect of small airports.
Quite a lot of airlines for a small airport!
I always appreciate that kind of seat cover. Cloth makes me think of mites, and I'm a bit allergic.
Surprising. I've never flown on a propeller plane and thought they were nosier.
Amazing!
A good chance to distance yourself from pixels for a moment, which of course not many people appreciate.
What a strange livery that of Air Bucharest. But I love the tulip.
Thank you for sharing! :)
Hi Gadi, thanks for sharing your first report here with us! An interesting, well-written and well-photographed report. It's particularly exotic and interesting as there aren't many reports on TAROM out there. I hope to see more reports from you in the future!
Welcome to Flight-Report!