Review of SATENA flight from San Andrés to San Andrés in Economy

Not A Flight Report

Hello and welcome to my first non-Flight Report!!

This is (n)FR number 5 from my trip around Florida and Colombia and will cover what should've been an exciting hop from San Andrés to the neighboring island of Providencia, going further into this rabbit hole of unknown islands in the Caribbean. Providencia is even more remote compared to San Andrés, with only 3 flights going to the island. All 3 are operated by SATENA Colombia - a small Colombia regional airline. Admittedly, there isn't a lot to do in Providencia (which isn't too much of a surprise) however I wanted to go just to tick the island off my map (plus I planned a week in San Andrés, which was waaaay too much). 

SATENA, like Wingo, also doesn't accept foreign cards - it, once again, generates an error. Not too sure why this is so common with small Colombian airlines, it feels like it's a lot more complicated than a simple website glitch. Fortunately, tickets can be bought on third-party websites (the fact that a UK-based website sells tickets to Providencia is pretty remarkable, really), which allowed me to visit the island… or so I thought. 

San Andrés Gustavo Rojas Pinilla International Airport (ADZ)

Not exactly related to this FR, but here's the airport's control tower located on the other side of the airfield with a public road separating the two (I was just passing by). 

Here's the check-in area. Not a lot of people as it was a quiet period (although the only queue here was the one for our flight). 

Check-in took 15 minutes. Security is located upstairs with a few shops/fast food restaurants (including a Subway) here. Confusingly, there are separate signs pointing to domestic and international departures, with them located on opposite sides of the airport. Despite 90% of the flights from here are domestic, the domestic part is fenced off, forcing everyone to go to international (no signs indicating this though, so you'll have to walk up there to find out). 

I love how the area is technically a terrace, which is nice although I wouldn't want to be here during a torrential downpour, which the island gets daily - it's crazy how fast the weather changes here. You can have amazing weather with no clouds and then a few minutes later the entire place will be flooded with rain (drainage isn't really a thing here). It's a daily occurrence here (at least in January).

Anyway, let's head to security. 

Security took less than 5 minutes. They scan your entry form again, although make sure to show the agent your boarding pass if you're heading to Providencia so they know not to keep it (you'll need it again when you leave the archipelago).

Speaking of boarding passes, here it is (it's the first time I got a 'boarding receipt'): 

The 'flight'

Flight time today from San Andrés to San Andrés will be 0 hours 0 minutes and here's our route: 

Nice view of the apron during boarding with a JetSmart A320neo heading to Bogota (BOG). You can also see our plane on the right.

Another photo of the apron with an Avianca A320 heading to Medellín (MDE). 

Walking across the apron to our plane. 

Going past the vehicle maintenance/storage area. 

And here's our plane: 

Some information about our plane:

Type: ATR 42-500
Registration: HK-4862
First flight: 10 November 1998
Age: ~26 years
Config: Y48

An ATR 42 with a rather interesting history. She was delivered to Air Martinique in 1998 before the airline became Air Caraïbes. The aircraft then moved to MaxAir Airlines, a tiny regional airline based in Queensland, Australia in 2007. She stayed with the airline for 2 years before it ceased operation. She became part of SATENA's fleet in 2012 and has remained with the airline ever since. 

Photo of the tray table with the safety instructions. 

Legroom is terrible although it's the norm for all small, regional, turboprops. Interestingly, looking at the config history, SATENA somehow added 2 additional seats to the aircraft when she moved to the airline (it went from Y46 to Y48). It's half a row so I'm not too sure how that was done. 

First view out of the window. 

The safety instructions were done only in Spanish. During that, the pilot attempted to start the left engine 3-4 times, all failing. We then sat here for around 15 minutes with no A/C so it was like 40°C in the cabin - it was suffocating! After a final attempt, the pilot announced something (again, in Spanish) and everyone started getting off. 

Being the last to deboard, I managed to get a couple more photos of the cabin.

The emergency exit rows with the awkward seating. (I discovered this 'quirk' of the ATR 42 during my trip to Tanzania). 

San Andrés Gustavo Rojas Pinilla International Airport (ADZ)

Heading upstairs back to the gates with a photo of the empty immigration area. 

Back at the gate. As someone who doesn't speak Spanish, this is incredibly confusing, I'm just following people that I know are on the flight and hope they know what's going on (most staff here also don't speak English well if at all). 

Another hour later, there was another announcement before everyone got up (with disappointed/annoyed expressions so I know for sure it wasn't good news). I followed the crowd… to the baggage reclaim area. I guess we're not flying today. :(

I, once again, followed everyone into a queue. 90 minutes later, I was given COP 170,000 ($40) in cash on the spot, which was supposed to cover a night's accommodation, taxi fare, and food (absolutely not enough) before being told to arrive back here at 6 am tomorrow. They didn't actually rebook me; they just told me to show up back here and find out what happens then.

I asked for a refund as I didn't fancy the risk of getting stuck on Providencia with a broken plane (this one plane is the only 'reliable' way out of the island. There is a boat service, but I was never able to figure out how to book it). The agent just told me to contact the airline by phone (or online) which felt like him shifting the responsibility to someone else. Unsurprisingly, considering the airline's terrible contact details and the fact that I booked with an equally terrible third-party, I didn't receive any refund. The $40 I received was 1/3 of the total price of the flight. Honestly, I'm just happy to have received any form of compensation for all the troubles. 

Anyway, that's the end of this non-Flight Report. I didn't bother getting up early to fight for a seat tomorrow (if the plane was even working then). As I mentioned, the risk of being stranded in Providencia was real (especially after today), and even a day's delay would result in a knock-on effect for the rest of my trip, potentially leading me to miss my long haul back to Europe. I guess that's always a risk when going to remote places with only 1 plane serving it, especially considering my terrible luck. For context, the aircraft had a 100% on-time performance for the week prior (including the earlier flight today). I just happened to book myself on the one flight that went wrong. 

Thanks for reading this 'flight' report and I'll see you in the next one, where I'll actually be flying. 

P.S. The plane did get fixed the day after, and it flew with a 100% on-time performance for the next 3 days…