Review of Condor flight Palma De Mallorca → Düsseldorf in Economy

Hello and welcome on board this second report regarding my av-geek travel to try the Boeing 757. As always this is the translation of a french publication a good way to improve my English skills.

introduction

I've got a job with different shifts and I also use to work on bank holidays or week-end. That's allows me to get some days offs during the week. A nice opportunity for cheep traveling and trying to catch some new airplane into my logbook. I've never had the chance to fly on board the Boeing 757 and they unfortunately starts to leave the European sky slowly.

Few airlines still use the 757 on European network mainly for holidays destinations with airlines like TUI, Jet2 or Condor and that's on this airlines that i will fine a good opportunity to catch a B757-300 as Condor fly a lot of routes every day from Germany to Palma de Mallorca with these birds and for a very cheap price in my case only 20€ !
But I need to go to Mallorca and 3 airlines share the line from Toulouse. Easyjet, Vueling and the smallest one Volotea. I will choose the last one because the schedule and the price where the better just 20€ for this morning flight.

Once again it's quiet easy to introduce you new airlines products on the English part of the website. This report is a new line for database and the Condor Boeing 757-300 as been reported a single time flight-report on a Thomas cook flight.
A bit of context we will speak about one of the busiest line (1,3 million passenger/year) in Europe by served 6 airlines flying 150 flights/week during the summer period.

Connection at Palma Airport

Arriving from my Volotea flight from Toulouse with a 2 hours connection. Not really a problem to be on short connection because the arrival and departure are on the same corridors at PMI you didn't need to pass threw security checks or identity controls if you stay inside Schengen area.

There is large showcases inside the corridors showing a large collection of aircraft models, mainly from old/disappeared airlines

Mallorca airport in on the top 20 of European busiest airport just behind Zurich Kloten, without surprise there is plenty of shops and services for leisure passengers

The FIDS is of course well supplied, with many flights to Germany. A necessity for carrying the 3 million of Germans coming to grill on Balearic beaches.

My flight is already displayed on the gate C62

Our aircraft is ready for duty and docked to our gate, he came from Dusseldorf this morning and without surprise it's a Boeing 757-300

Other side of our plane of the day, who still wear the old livery of Condor. Our aircraft was 20 old years flying with all different versions of Condor/Thomas Cook with a short period with the British counterpart of the leisure airlines.

Passengers starts to reach the gate, but there is still plenty of time before boarding. So I get threw the end of the building where I can enjoy a pretty nice view on the runway and aircraft. Here you can see an Airbus A319 of Brussels Airlines.

Few aircraft arriving like this Airbus A320 from Eurowings Europe (based in Palma) this one comes from Munich.

For this Airbus A320 of Vueling a return flight is scheduled to Paris CDG.

But Germans are place master's, with TUI and is flashy Boeing 737-800 wearing "Magic Life" livery coming from Basel.

Another special livery with this partnership with Hertz car rentals who will do one of the flight to DUS.

With partnership TUI is doing pretty well. This Boeing 737-800 start is journey to Stuttgart.

Another TUI with the classical livery arrives from Frankfurt

If you have read the previous report, you should recognize him. This is the A319 who brought me here. He's getting back to Toulouse.

Unfortunately there no just colorful livery at PMI, You can see much more discreet aircraft like this Airbus A320 of Gowair (Spanish charter airline) flying for TUI Netherland during the 737MAX crisis.

Time is flying, I must go back to my gate

Just few meters backtracking into corridors.

And now our aircraft is now ready for boarding ! It was impressive to see how many newspaper were offloaded from the cargo hold, mostly for the 30.000 German resident of the Island.

Boarding pass was send in Pdf file but it can be used as an e-ticket

View from the jetbridge, as you can see our left trust reverser as been swapped with another aircraft.

Need to wait a bit before climbing into the aircraft

On board condor 757-300

Fuselage shoot on one of the longest single aisle aircraft in the world

I was welcomed on board by an entirely feminine crew very friendly and smiley (far from their Lufthansa colleagues). I was surprise by the high load factor on this morning flight and I've got difficulty to find and empty row to take this picture.

View from the rear of my seat, Condor use the UK made Acro XC, he is pretty slim but is still equipped with an unusual music channel panel (didn't tried it sorry). 

Pitch is pretty good for a leisure airline, but it's necessary regarding German's height.

Overhead panel, is looking like an  old 737NG (before sky interior).

View from my window seat.

And from that point I got a nice view on control tower and traffic moving around

Boarding isn't yet finished, boarding up to 261 passenger by on door and one aisle takes a bit of time.

Safety procedure are broadcast on the screen located on the middle of the aisle in German and English.

Passengers are now ready for takeoff, captain made is announcement she told us that she expect some turbulence during the first quarter of the flight. At Condor women's have the controls from cockpit to the tail!

We're pushing back just after this announcement and shortly taxiing to runway 24R used for departures this morning.

On the way we saw this Lauda Air A320, the new Ryanair group airline will follow us to Dusseldorf.

On a remote parking this sistership wearing new colors will soon get back to Frankfurt.

For the second time of this report we saw this flashy B737 of TUI departing to Basel.

We stop few seconds at the holding point before getting on the runway.

We're performing a rolling take-off and trust me the 2 Rolls RB-211 are really powerful. The Boeing 757 is well appreciate by pilots for this good weight/thrust ratio.

We are rocketing above the small strip of land which separates the airport and Can Pastilla beach.

In the middle of Palma bay we slightly start a 180° turn in order to face the north

This turn allow me to show you the Palma de Mallorca harbor & city

On the edge of the winglet, this is PMI where we took off few minutes before.

On the other side of the city you can have a look on the seafront of Magaluf a famous place of nightlife.

Now heading to North ready to reach our cruising altitude.

still got a nice view on Palma de Mallorca, on the right side you can see the airport.

We are now crossing the biggest Balearic island from South to North.

We let the Cala Mendia beaches and the German tourists under our wings ready to cross a small part of the Mediterranean sea. 

After few minutes of flight we flying over Menorca a smaller and less touristic island.

It's quite inside the cabin and the loadfactor is really good for an off-season flight, i would say close to 90%. I was initially booked on the evening flight, but my morning flight from Toulouse was on time so I choose to buy another ticket for this flight for 19€ 2 hour and a half before the flight.

As announced by our flight crew it's start to be cloudy when we are approaching the french coast.

That let me some times to introduce you the content of the pocket in front of me 4 elements, the safety card, the Bob + Boutique books and the company magazine "Holidays".

Detail of the corporates pages, for the fleet presentation & european network for all the 3 subsidiary's of Thomas Cook.

Outside not many things to see at the moment.

Hopefully flightradar24 got our track on the map.

Luckily the cloud cover started to disappear as we are approaching the French Alps.

We flew over the Serre-Ponçon artificial lake, it's the border between two french districts the "Haute-alpes" and "Alpes de Hautes Provence".

And we start our Alpes crossing and the landscapes are just breathtaking

The Maurienne valley 

I can easily recognise the city of Grenoble few miles away, the city where I come from ! Always strange to see it from the air.

For the third time we can see the eye catching Boeing 737-800 TUI Magic Life starting is descent to Basel. Sorry for the blurred picture due to heatwave comming from our engines.

We are following our route to the North, now flying over the Tarentaise valley, in the middle of the picture the olympic city of Albertville

After few minutes of flight we 're arriving to Switzerland border and Léman lake.

Geneva and the single runway of Cointrin airport

Detail picture from our winglet

Of course Condor is a leisure airlines, it's not a surprise to find a buy on board service. The price are quite low (1€ cheaper than U2 or FR for the same products). So I bought a combo thea +  choco muffin there are big & tasty. It's possible to pre-order hot meals at the booking but also to buy some on board.

The mountains high start to be smaller as we are approaching the Jura.

Inside the cabin everybody is quiet, Collective IFE show humorist programs and some Condor advertises

Besançon city on the far east of France

Nancy Ochey air base one of the biggest in France, home of 3 strike squadron 1/3 Navarre, 2/3 Champagne and 3/3 Ardennes all flying on the Mirage 2000D.

Moselle river somewhere between Nancy and Metz.

We just need few minutes for crossing the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, from side to side.

We are now arriving in Germany, with another artificial lake in the Eifel national park

As announced by our crew we are starting our descent, seat belt sign is now on.

The flat terrain of Rhin plain start to grow up on the window near Düren

Airbrakes to slowdown our aircraft

When you come from France it's always a surprise to see a lot of wind turbines.

But this huge hole reminds us that Germany is from far the biggest European coal user… The open air mine of Hambach has some of the saddest records like to be the worlwilde deeper (-253m) the and also the biggest source of CO² in Europe.

Few turns in order to intercept the approach path to DUS airport, on your right the Borussia Mönchengladbach stadium.

And the eponymous city.

The small airport of Mönchengladbach doesn't look to get a lot of regular flight.

On final, flaps fully extended.

Crossing the Rhine river with a lot of barge on it just. Just seconds before touch down

landing @DUS

The weather was quite good but the landing was bumpy.

Airbrakes & reverses in order to slow our airliner.

And we vacate the runways few seconds later without stopping before crossing the second one.

We taxi to the south part of the airport, looking at some Dusseldorf parked aircraft like this Condor A321

But the main airline here is Eurowings the low-cost subsidiary of LH group with of a lot of single aisle aircraft.

But also few Airbus widebody like these A330/340

A northern visitor comming, an A320 for Helsinki.

We finally get stopped on a remote position, airbridge & bus where quickly available for emptying or B757.

It's time for me to leave this comfortable cabin.

I leave the plane by the left rear door after greeting the crew responsible for my row. What a long bird !

Detail on the door, I know there is some addict on the site.

Last view on our Renton sausage.

I was on the last bus, with just few passengers time for a short trip on sunny DUS tarmac

Hard to catch all the length of our airplane

On the overside a squadron of Lauda's A320.

We soon reach our destination, the arrival of the bus are directly on the baggage claim area.

After few meters I'm ground side at the arrival level.

But a wouldn't leave the airport without have a look at the wonderful terrace located on top of departure level

Few automatic stairs, 2,20 € and enjoy a perfect airplane view (look at the bonus !

After few hour of sunny spotting session it's time to reach the city to go to my hotel. For this you just need to go the Sbahn station located inside the airport.

The train frequency isn't very high but the train are comfortable and ticket price are cheap…

BonUS DUS terrace spotting

As I told you I spend 2 hours looking the airplane at the terrace, surrounded by air spotters and few family's.

A 350-900 Singapore Airlines destination Singapore.

Condor A321 destination Tenerife Sur

TUI fly Boeing 737-800 destination Hurghada

Pegasus Boeing 737-800 Ada.E livery comming from Istambul Sabiha Gokcen (SAW)

At the same time the Beech King Air used for runway instruments calibration do few low passes.

Hop! ERJ 170 ready for departure to Nantes.

Tunisair B737-500 retro livery landing from Monastir

Ukraine Intl Airlines Boeing 737-800 destination Kiev.

Eurowings A340-300 destination Miami

It's time to get back to work for my Boeing 757-300 destination Gran Canaria

TO close this spotting session a nice catch with this Icelandair B757-200 80 years special livery comming from Keflavik.

Time to say goodbye to DUS

See you soon and have safe, smooth and nice flights !