Review of Iberia flight Madrid → Paris in Economy

back from santander

I found these old pictures from my first business trip from Paris to Santander in 2009 and wanted to share it with you guys!

The policy of our company was generous at the time as they insisted only legacy carriers should be used and through the american express travel agency.

 We had our boarding passes from our previous flight from Santander, point at which we chose our seats… As you can see below the pitch on Iberia in between seats is below average as there is 31 raws, a similar configuration used by low-cost Easyjet.

at madrid adolfo suarez - barajas airport

I had some time before taking off to do some plane spotting.. Unfortunately that was a rare quiet time of the day..

The AvGEEK bit
Madrid Suarez airport is the only airport serving Madrid. It was known as Barajas, the town where it is located, before it got renamed after the first Prime Minster post Franco era, Adolfo Suarez.
The airport is the busiest of Spain and thanks to the historical links of the country with Latin America, it is the most important gateway to South America from Europe. Indeed, even though the busiest route are domestic (Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca) and European (London and Paris), the routes to Latin America follow shortly after with Buenos Aires with a million of passenger every year. The airport is the second largest in size in Europe after Paris Charles De Gaulle. Madrid Suarez airport is the hub for Iberia and Air Nostrum, and as such generates 40% of the traffic.
➡ The airport was opened in 1927.
➡ There are 4 parallel runways and the airport features the following buildings:
➡ Terminal 1 is home to low cost carriers and long Haul flights of Air Europa.
➡ Terminal 2 is used for Schengen flights, mainly by Star Alliance members
➡ Terminal 3 is used for Schengen and long haul flights, mainly by Skyteam members like Delta, Air France, KLM and Air Europa
➡ Terminal 4 is used primarily by Iberia for schengen flights
➡ Terminal 4S is a satellite of Terminal 4 and connected by train to it. It is used by Iberia and fellow OneWorld member for International flights like American Airlines, British Airways and Latam.

We boarded in a general way gate K80, there was no group no priority lane. Next to us was an A321, similar to what we had on the way out.

on board the a320

Aircraft: Airbus A320-214
 Registration: EC-IEG
Engines: 2x CFM56
Age: was 7 years old in 2009
Layout: Y186
 Observation: In 2009 Iberia was still using the old logo and old livery; as the current brand was released in 2013.

 We taxied a short time and headed towards runway 36R during the safety briefing.

We took off from the same runway a few moments later. Strangely; the music that was played during taxiing was still on well after take off..

 The seats were just like on the way out, made by Recaro, they were just about confortable. The particularity was the coat hook and the magasine rack being on top end of the seat in front, rather than in front of your knees. That type of seat is also now rolled out on British Airways fleet.

I was quite impressed with the purser as she was speaking in spanish english and french.

Already at the time, Iberia was charging for food and drinks on board, which felt already a disappointment. 

The Iberia Magazine, Ronda, was fairly well written, though mostly in Spanish.

The rest of the flight went smoothly. a bit boring at times.

After a little less than 2 hours, the descent started.

We approached Paris Orly from the south, made a shape turn on the left started an approach towards runway 26.

The benefit of such manoeuvre for a passenger point of view is the view on a few parisian landmarks..

 Like the Eiffel Tower and 

 the bridges over the Seine River..

The Landing was very smooth..

After another short taxi, we arrived at Terminal Ouest., at the north end of the terminal - which was dedicated to Iberia and TAP Air portugal- the rest of the terminal was used by Air France (now Easyjet too).

at paris orly airport

The plane parked at gate 11..
Desembarking was fast and easy; we reclaimed our bags (which was a bit long; about 20 min waiting) and took a taxi from the booth to Paris Centre.