Review of Iberia Regional (Air Nostrum) flight Madrid → Toulouse in Economy

Hello and welcome on board this report, return flight from a professional day trip in the Spanish capital.

introduction

We are at the beginning of January when a work meeting is organized on last minute in the premises of a partner company based in Madrid.

No av-geek consideration for the routing, it's the company that pays, so we'll make it as simple as possible with Iberia, which again offers the possibility of making the round trip during the day with a very early flight on Wednesday morning. and a return flight the same day in the evening enough to spend a good day's working on site.

Regarding the class of travel it will be economy (company travel policy) even if the ticket in J is cheaper than the ticket in Y on the IB website!!! Indeed at D-10 the prices are a bit crazy for such a short flight.

Unfortunately, beginning the following Thursday, the strikes against the French pension reform and to avoid having one of its aircraft and crew stranded in Toulouse Iberia will cancel my return flight less than 24 hours before forcing me to urgently contact the travel agency making reservations for my company in the evening  in order to be protected on another flight. Instead of an evening return it will therefore be a mid-afternoon return, with the last flight available within next 2 days and a shortened work meeting.

Which gives us the following routing:

This line is rather known on our website indeed Iberia links on average 3 times a day Toulouse at its Hub of Madrid using CRJ-1000 of Air Nostrum. For this summer season Volotea should start operating 2 weekly flights on Friday evenings and Monday evenings, which will undoubtedly reduce the prices on this route a little, which are, given the distance to be traveled, rather high.

In terms of report KevinDC has reported this line multiple times mainly in business. It will be the first report in economy in this direction

January afternoon in Barajas

After a constructive but shortened meeting, it's already time for me to head back to the airport. It is very easy to take a taxi on the street in Spain and as soon as I leave the offices (located on a large boulevard) I stop a taxi in less than 15 seconds and go to the direction of terminal 4! I am dropped off at the departures floor for a very reasonable rate this time (less than 20€). We can see that the architectural unity is respected including outside the building.

We arrive in the check-in area which is for me one of the most pleasant in Europe with this superb architecture and perfect lighting. All areas are well indicated with XXL screens in front of each counter.

Flight indication display where American cities are mixed in the middle of European destinations. My flight is scheduled on time, good news!

Passages to security checks will be performed within a very reasonable time of just over ten minutes. To reach the Schengen gates (H, J and K) and the large hall of T4 you have to go down one floor.

It will be a short but obligatory crossing of the duty-free shop which is located just at the arrival of the escalator. We find the usual cigarettes, perfumes and chocolate accompanied by articles a little more local.

I head inside the huge pier that is the T4 where we find the doors on each side and the shops and restaurants in the middle.

The terminal offer beautiful views of the aircraft at the gates like this Airbus A320 from Iberia which has just arrived from Milan Malpensa.

 Or this Airbus A319 in One World livery which will soon takes off for Asturias airport located in the north near Oviedo and Gijón.

Another Airbus A320 also departing for a domestic destination in northern Spain and it will be Vigo.

Arriving a few minutes earlier from the neighboring capital of Lisbon, this Airbus A320neo will leave Madrid at the end of the afternoon for Venice.

 Airbus single aisle aircraft are visible at the 4 corners of the terminal with this other Airbus A320 from Barcelona.

Having eaten nothing since 4 am I would take a sandwich and a squeezed juice at the Mama Campo shop. The prices are not particularly cheap but the quality was good with excellent Iberian ham.

If you want a bit of spotting variety, you have to go to the north end of the terminal where you can find regional Air Nostrum aircraft, mainly Crj-1000s like this machine arriving from a flight from Bologna.

And unsurprisingly, it is in this area that my plane of the day will board. Our flight will be called for boarding on time and the priorities seem to me to be fairly well respected. Only small problem in this area located at the end of the terminal, is that many flights can board at the same time which brings a lot of passengers and creates a bit of mess in the announcements.

Boarding pass was on my cellphone.

We reach our aircraft parked on a contact position . Our aircraft this afternoon is a Crj-1000 registered EC-MPA. Delivered 6 years ago, it had the particularity of having flown on lease for almost 3 years in the Canary Islands under the green colors of the Binter Canarias airline.

As usual on the Crj, the largest trolley bags are loaded into the narrow holds (under the cabin floor) by the baggage handlers who have to contort themselves to put them inside.

Climb on board by the stairs integrated on door 1 LH.

Push back is almost ready

on board Air Nostrum Crj-1000

The welcoming on board will be very friendly from the senior cabin crew lady, while her young colleague in the back will be a real sunshine, smiling, attentive and paying a lot of attention to is passengers (did I really board on an Air Nostrum flight ?).
On the cabin side, there is a classic seat model that reminds me a bit of the Sicma seats found on board the former HOP Crj-700s. These are not the same seats that you found on board HOP's CRJ-1000 and they are unfortunately less comfortable.

Cabin seatmap extracted from Aerolopa website is fairly accurate for row 26, which only has a small part of the window.

The pitch is correct without being great. However, it will be more than enough for my size and the duration of the flight.

We are parked on the eastern part of the pier, which allows us to have slightly larger airplanes parked next to us, such as this Airbus A320 which, contrary to what its promotional sticker for Puerto-Rico indicates, arriving from Barcelona.

On board our Crj-1000 the last passengers climbs on board and reaching their seats. This afternoon the flight is full mainly due to the cancellation of the flight scheduled for the same evening and the next day because of the strikes in France.

Pushback will be done on time, under a superb blue sky which makes me regret leaving Madrid so quickly.

We make a small bypass on a taxiway a little further to avoid the ATR which arrives in front of us. That's will allow us to make a review of the Air Nostrum fleet parked in Madrid.

Passage alongside one of the rare Crj-200 still in service in the Air Nostrum fleet and more widely in Europe and if I believe the painting efforts that have been made on this machine very recently, it should not leaving the fleet soon.
I'm going to try to fly on board one of them next June, in any case I think the Iberia regional livery suits it perfectly! This small Crj will only leave in the evening for Logrono.

Rest day for this CRJ-1000 which will only leave two days later for Nantes.

Another machine often forgotten in the Air Nostrum fleet is the ATR 72-600, of which only 5 machines remain in service, which mainly provide inter-island flights in the Balearic Islands or rotations to the Spanish enclave of Melilla. Exceptionally this ATR will fly to Badajoz instead of the usual Crj-200. Moreover, unless I am mistaken, these are the only machines (in service) to still wear the former Iberia livery.

Our taxiing continues, it will be a departure on runways 36. In the distance we can see the terminal 4S which host intercontinental flights. The most observant will have recognized a Boeing 777-300ER from the Angolan company TAAG operating a flight to Luanda.

Take-off on runway 36R

We leave our shadow on the ground and quickly climb above the small hills that border Barajas airport, we then fly over the M50 motorway.

 We continue our climb above the agricultural area marking the border between the community of Madrid and the region of Castile and La Mancha.

In the cabin, despite the crowd, the atmosphere is really calm and many passengers are taking a nap, as will be the case with my neighbor but also with the Philippines family on the left row of the aircraft arriving from a correspondence with QR.

Passing above the clouds.

And in some places a little snow is even visible on the hills! I really like flying over Spanish lands, there is a great variety of colors on ground and many land movements which are very beautiful to see from the sky.

Let's see what the seat pocket contains, unsurprisingly we find a regulatory safety card (very tired) but also the Bob's menu. As on all Iberia Regional flights on economy, there was a sale on board which did not experience great success with only one or two sales despite the efforts of the young cabin crew. It must be said that the prices are not really cheap.

We arrive above Aragon and the terrain becomes more and more hilly but the sky is unfortunately more and more overcast.

We must be approximately there. Usual route between the Spanish capital and the Occitan capital with a cruise at 28,000ft today.

 View of the Pyrenees peaks (You will have to believe me!!! ^^)

Our descent is already well under way when we emerge from the cloud layer, the Pyrenees are far behind us and it is the fields between Hautes Pyrénées, Haute-Garonne and Gers that pass under our wings.

We are approaching the Toulouse from the south by roughly following the course of the Garonne, on our right you can see the suburban districts of Castanet-Tolosan.

Then we arrive on the steep banks of the hills of "Pech-david" where we find the Rangueil Hospital but also for some time now the new Toulouse urban cable car "Téléo" whose white pylons we see.

Then after following the line of the Garonne for a few moments we let it reach the city center passing to the left of the island of Ramiers where we find the Stadium (largest stadium of Toulouse hosting the soccer team).

Passing near the Arènes district we see the concert hall of Toulouse and we fly over the horse race field.

landing in blagnac

Only a few seconds left in the air as we cross the threshold of runway 32R, so it will be a landing in 32L for this first arrival in Toulouse in 2023.

Quiet touch and soft braking, the small size of the airbrakes on the Crj always makes me smile.

We begin our taxiing towards the terminal, I can see on the other side of the runway the factories of the European aircraft manufacturer, still full of aircraft being finished and Belugas used for part transport. We will also note in the background the Pyrenees mountains particularly visible that day.

We arrive in sight of the terminal with a large number of aircraft on the tarmac, it's nice to see back so much activity on the Toulouse platform.

I would disembark in the last chatting a few minutes with the young cabin crew at the back who will be very friendly and charming. She will tell me that she has just finished her day and that she will be a passenger on the return flight…
Indeed the crew of our flight would have had to spend the night in Toulouse if there had not been the strikes. And the crew who had arrived the day before had to take the control of the plane to fly back to Spain… In short, see you Papa Alpha!

Next to us will be parked 2 Easyjet Airbuses, the A319 seen that morning has not moved and will only leave the day after to perform a rotation towards Nantes.

The path towards the luggage belts is very short when you arrive in hall C. It will be non-stop for me, having taken the minimum for this day trip.

Passage in front of the indication display which does not yet display too many canceled or delayed flights (spoiler this will not be the case the next day and for months to come!)

Exit groundside also very fast, it is still early the cafe near the arrivals is still open.

Outside the facade of the Dominique Baudis airport which proudly displays its new logo.

End of the report bringing a bit of update on the database and documenting one of my routine flight. Which you safe and nice flights see you soon on new reports !