One month before the scheduled departure date, I read on the carrier's corporate web-site it was to stop scheduled operations on 23/04/2006. I was not too much ill at ease since my flight was to leave on 03/03/2006 and return on 04/06/2006 but I feared some industrial actions.
On D-day we left Liege for Zaventem in the early morning so that we could avoid the ubiquitous Brussels-traffic-jams. We left our car at AirParking and were mini-bussed to the front of the departure hall. With 70 minutes to spend before the planned opening of the check-in desk, I could do so « aviation-shopping » in the terminal: timetables, labels, in-flight magazines (thanks to Virgin for the special 10th-anniversary issue).
Our check-in desk was to open at 8 am, next to the then SkyEurope area (row 10). A lot of passengers were indeed queueing for that flight and I could hear it was 100% full. At 8.20 we began to get worried (euphemism) as our desk was not crewed yet... At 8.35 we could finally get our tickets. We could get near-front-cabin seats (3C + 3 D/F) and the friendly check-in agent told me there would about 28 people aboard. Loadfactor was then 56% as Air Wales ATR can seat 50 passengers.
After the mandatory passport controls and security-checks I could wander in the terminal on my way to the really far B96 gate. On the apron, I could spot a rare beast: LOT's single StarAlliance Boeing 737-500 with a borrowed nose-cone. These remote gates offer a good view on a side of the B. As a result, I could watch most of the action there.
Larger pic of SP-LKE - Star Alliance Lot Boeing 737-500 larger pic of OO-DJZ A lovely SNBA Avro 85 larger pic of SE-DSU the one you can buy as a 1/100 model larger pic of OE-LBS
Ten minutes before the scheduled boarding time an announcement was made since the gate number had changed. The gate agent checked our boarding passes and noticed there was something wrong: our names were printed where the first names should have been. She checked other passes and they had the same “mistake”. She made several phone calls and eventually let everybody leave the terminal. We took and old (and smoke-smelling ?!) Aviapartner VanHool bus. The drive was so long that some people joked we were going to be bussed to Cardiff (LOL). For a while it looked like our bus was playing “catch-me-if-you-can” with the British Airways Dornier. Yet we did not catch it
However we stopped in front of the tail our GA-SEA, my so-much expected ADAR 42.
Catch me if you can!
The single female flight attendant was waiting for the passengers and said “hello” with a grin. Boarding took some time as it appeared there was a second mistake on the boarding passes: seats CA & FA did not exist... but they had seats A+BA & CA+DA. The air-hostess shouted : “Seating is free”. I crossed my fingers, hoping we would land safely in Wales... in not in the middle of nowhere.
Once everybody had found a seat, which seemed to take ages although we were 28 passengers for 50 seats, we could hear the door closing. And the flight attendant made the usual announcements in English. She announced there would be no-inflight sale or catering as the carrier was to cease operations shortly. I was really disappointed as I had expected to buy some Air Wales products (models, pens, etc.) before the carrier disappeared.
Our anonymous pilots announced we would take off later than expected due to congestion on the apron. In my opinion we had missed our slot because of the chaotic boarding. We taxied on the runway for a long time, then made a steep UA-turn and took off smoothly.
The 90-minute flight was uneventful and I found the ADAR 42 less noisy than the Sabena/Schreiner Dash 8-300 I used to fly when I studied in Leeds. On my way to the rear toiled I could notice our stewardess was reading a magazine.
Our belated landing was as smooth as our take-off. On the Welsh apron I could spot a Zoom Boeing 767-300 (my first one) and a much more common KLM Fokker 100.
What a niece view!
Deboarding was fast and we were rushed to the terminal by a smiling agent. She told us we would have to queue for a long time because the Zoom Boeing 767's passengers were in front of us. After queuing for 25 minutes we could pass the border and collect our luggage. “Wales, here am I”
BeN
