Avis du vol entre Madrid et Toulouse en classe Affaires avec Iberia Regional (Air Nostrum)

Introduction

Hello and welcome to the third part of this series of flight reviews. 

Like every Holiday season, we first flew from San Diego to the East coast to visit with family and friends prior to flying on to Europe. For the first part of the trip, we flew Alaska Airlines in Domestic First to Washington, DC, which was covered in the first review. For the second leg, we flew out of New York JFK to Madrid in Iberia Business class, covered in the previous review. For the third, and final, leg of this outbound portion, We flew Iberia Express - Air Nostrum from Madrid to Toulouse, our final destination. We fly this route many many times a year, so I don't always write up reviews on this leg. 

The Iberia flights were booked directly through Iberia well in advance. Being the AvGeek that I am, I love how Iberia show a 360 view of the cabin from each seat when selecting seats during the booking flow. 

Prior to flying on to Toulouse, we'd spent two days in Madrid. The Spanish capital is absolutely magical at Christmastime!

We had a great view of the holiday lights from our hotel room!

From the immense Christmas tree towering over Puerta del Sol, to the Gran vía, to the Plaza Mayor, Madrid is a Holiday wonderland in the month of December. 

Routing

Flights in this series. 

Check-in & Lounge

Checking in on the Iberia app the day prior, it looked as it there would only be one other passenger in the Business cabin aside from us. 

On the day of the flight, we took the Cercanías commuter train line C-1 to Terminal 4 from the city, which was very quick and easy. You can also take the metro, but there are more stops so it takes a bit longer. 

I love that the T4 train station is right below the terminal so you're up to the departures level in minutes. 

The Business class check in area was very quiet on this Christmas Eve. 

We quickly dropped off our checked baggage and headed to security in a mostly empty terminal. 

Business class passengers and oneworld Emerald and Sapphire status holders have access to the Fast track facility. 

The Fast Track lanes in Madrid are always so easy and stress-free with friendly and helpful staff–something you can't say about many airport security checkpoints in the West! I especially love that there's no need to remove approved liquids or electronics from cabin baggage–the experience is similar to TSA pre-check in the U.S., but generally more pleasant. 

The Iberia Dalí Lounge is located right after security in the main Terminal 4 building. Most intra-European/Schengen zone flights operate from the main part of Terminal 4, while non-Schengen and long-haul flights operate from the Terminal 4 mid-field satellite concourse, known as "T4S". 

Friendly agents welcomed us into the lounge wishing us a "Feliz Navidad". Like much of the rest of the terminal the lounge was quieter than normal. 

We usually like to head to the far end of the lounge as it's usually even quieter.

Nice, practically empty! Very rare these days. 

Much like UK airports, gates are only announced about an hour prior to departure. I received a notification in the app that the gate would be K75, located on the far end of the terminal from which most Iberia Express flights operate.  

It was about lunchtime and luckily there were plenty of options. As usual, the food selection in Iberia lounges is quite good, with lots of fresh options. 

As well as several hot dishes and desserts. 

I've always liked both of Iberia's lounges in Madrid. While the Velazquez lounge in T4S is larger and has better tarmac views than the Dalí lounge, I quite like the open and airy design of the Dalí lounge. 

Boarding

As the K gates are quite a distance from the lounge, we began to head out around 10 minutes prior to boarding time.

Boarding began shortly after we arrived and was well-organised with clearly marked separate queues for each boarding group. Iberia only have 4 boarding groups, unlike AA and BA who have 8 or 9. In my experience, as a frequent flyer on all three of those airlines, boarding generally feels less chaotic on IB than AA or BA as passengers can more easily organise themselves when there are only 4 boarding groups where is group has a specific queue. This is not possible when there are 9 boarding groups, so you end up with a lot more crowding and having to slalom through lower groups like a salmon swimming upstream when flying AA or BA.  

Unlike the gates at the very end of the terminal, where you can usually board on foot, K75 is a bus gate. This kind of nullifies Group 1 priority boarding as there were likely people from Groups 1 and 2, and maybe even 3 on the same bus. 

So yeah, you can be one of a few people in group 1 and end up having a ton of others boarding ahead if you end up on the wrong side of the bus when the doors open, which I clearly did, hah!

No worries, I'm not usually bothered as my AvGeek side loves ground boarding for the great aircraft views and other sites and sounds of the tarmac.

There were 3 rows of Business class on today's flight, which is pretty typical for this route. 

Like most other European carriers, with the exception of the Lufthansa Group, Iberia do not block adjacent seats in Business class on regional jets. I don't mind when travelling as a family, of course, but this would not be ideal if I were travelling alone. 

The first row has a ton of legroom and the seats are well-padded and comfortable. 

A real in-flight magazine! A rarity in the post-Pandemic world. 

One this I like about flying Air Nostrum over mainline Iberia is the streaming entertainment service. 

There are audio books, TV series, magazines, games, e-books, and more. 

You can also access the buy-on-board menu through the entertainment portal. 

While there's not a ton of content, most Air Nostrum flights are under 1.5h in duration, so there's plenty to keep you entertained for short flights. 

Ooh, I love Merlí ! It's one of my favourite Spanish series. 

As a French and Spanish speaker, with a low-level of Occitan comprehension (Occitan is the traditional regional language of Southern France), I like to watch it in the original Catalan and can usually catch like 95% of the dialogue–enough to understand what's going on.

The Flight

We departed from the gate a few minutes early and had a short taxi time, as usual from Terminal 4. 

It was a beautiful day for flying…at least on this side of the Pyrénées!

As I enjoyed Merlí on the streaming IFE, my kid had drawing–everyone had entertainment on this short flight. 

In fact, it was almost difficult to watch an entire episode as the flight was so short!

Service began shortly after take-off with drinks. 

I had a Cava. 

My AvGeekiness appreciates the branded glassware. 

My son's pre-ordered child meal came out first as usual. It's funny how his child meals are almost always more copious than the adult meals. Very impressed that Iberia can do a full hot meal on a 1-hour flight!

For the standard adult meals, there were two options–I can't remember the other, but I had the prawns, which was very nicely presented. 

Yum, Jamón in the first course

Everything was very tasty with bold flavours. 

There was even cheese AND a small dessert, a very nice artisanal yoghurt from Catalonia. 

I was expecting some nice views of the Pyrénées, but nope! There was a thick blanket of clouds as soon as we began flying over the mountains. 

Once over the mountains it's only about 15-20 minutes into Toulouse. We landed in rainy Blagnac airport a few minutes ahead of schedule. 

A school of Belugas! Always nice to see when flying in and out of Toulouse. 

Luckily there was a break in the rain as we deplaned, especially as we had to wait for our larger roller cabin bags to be brought out. 

Checked baggage were out quickly as well, and we were on our way to celebrate the Holidays with family!