Route: Madrid Barajas International Airport (MAD) - Paris-Orly Airport (ORY)
Date: April 19, 2008
Airline/Flight Number: easyJet 4236
Aircraft Type: Airbus A319
Aircraft Registration: G-EZBY
Scheduled Departure Time: 5:50 PM
Actual Pushback Time: 7:20 PM
Takeoff Time: 7:30 PM
Scheduled Arrival Time: 7:50 PM
Actual Arrival Time: 8:30 PM
After a day and a half of exploring beautiful Madrid, it was time to move on to Paris. Our hotel was just a couple of blocks from the beautiful Atocha train station, so we decided to take their clean, comfortable and reasonably priced (1 Euro for a regular trip, 1 Euro extra to go to the airport) Metro to the airport. It took about an hour but was among the most painless public transport routes to an airport I've ever used.
An articulated Madrid Metro train!
EasyJet uses the older Terminal 1 at MAD, which is just a run-of-the-mill functional airport terminal, nothing like Terminal 4. When we checked in, the agent informed us that our flight was running an hour late, despite nothing noting this on the departures board. Not surprisingly, the agent told us that the bag check fee we had paid for when we booked the flight would not be refunded despite deciding not to check anything. A tip to consider: one of our bags was a larger carry-on that did not fit in EasyJet's carry-on size tester, but no one challenged us.
With some extra time to kill, we headed to a cafe near our gate and got some lunch. The cafe offered a giant window overlooking the ramp and the active runway but unfortunately all the tables next to it were occupied. We finished eating and headed to the gate waiting area, which featured a special smoking room...with no roof and no door! Hence, everything near the smoking area reeked of smoke. We moved to some seats further away and were able to breathe again.
Notice the "Zona De Fumadores" on the left, and the woman straddling the doorway.
The board finally indicated a delay of our flight. Expected boarding time turned into 18:50 and then 19:00. Finally the plane pulled up to gate 37 and a big queue formed, Southwest style. The gate agent strung up some ropes to create two lines for groups A and B (no C). Our tix were in the B group and somehow I managed to be standing at the front of the B line when he made it. The A group wasn't too big and soon it was our turn. There were still plenty of empty seats when we entered the cabin, and we took row 12 on the starboard side.
MAD is an immense airport with plenty of empty space, but for some reason, they have chosen to store these old Grummans on an abandoned runway right next to Terminal 1.
Terminal 4S and the tower.
After hearing horror stories of RyanAir and EasyJet, I was prepared for a cabin filled with advertisements, nasty cabin crew and cramped seats. None of these were the case. The seats were wide and comfortable, seat pitch was respectable, the plane was spotlessly clean and the crew was very friendly. Only oddity: the seats don't recline, which is fine with me as I generally find 2 inches of recline less comfortable than sitting up, especially on a short flight. The best part...total fare was €64.46 for the two of us for a two hour flight. That's about US$50 each at the exchange rate when I booked the flight. For comparison, Iberia and Air France fares were $400 and up (each) for the sector.
We took off through the raindrops and climbed steeply and quickly to cruise altitude, maintaining pretty much runway heading the whole way to Orly. Beverages and snacks were served, buy on board of course. I had another Coke for €2.
An interesting site during takeoff: some old Iberia 74s and DC9s being broken up, as well as a 757.
Whilst?
Caught some naptime then woke up while we began our descent over some very green French farmland. Saw the Eiffel Tower in the distance on final approach, landed smoothly and taxied to the gate.
Lots o' windmills.
Paris just before sunset.
Orly South Terminal is pretty small, and we got to the exit pretty quickly. Most EU countries now treat intra-EU flights as domestic flights for immigration purposes, so there was no passport check to go through. Saw some interesting aircraft at the gates.
Orly South Terminal. Some interesting history: Orly was used as a forward base by the Luftwaffe when Adolf took over in the 1940s, which of course led the RAF and USAAF to bomb the crap out of it. We later repaired it and used it as our own base until 1947, when it was handed back to the French. The USAF leased a small part of the airport through 1967 for transport ops.
Our ride.
Some French government jets:
Views from inside a terminal don't get much better than this.
Inside of the terminal.
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