World Aviation Analysis

A excelente revista AEROUBI publicou o meu artigo sobre aviões russos. A revista é editada por alunos da Universidade da Beira Interior, na Covilhã. Agradecimentos especiais ao Tiago Rebelo Site da revista: aeroubi.ubi.pt/pt

Some conclusions: - Cubana service sucks and no way anyone should fly longhaul for 9 hours when UX (air europa) is about the same price. - Wanna fly Russian? Cubana has no accidents since 1999, so no so unsafe as people think - Internal flights are fixed and published price, and if they rob someone it is the airline and not the passenger - Cubana people may be too laid back, but are not incompetent nor bad tempered. If you are patient and polite, things get done. I saw the Captain in several flights talking hapilly with passengers without the "I am the master" attitude - Add 1 hour extra for check in all flights - The terminals are not pretty, but are reasonably functional - The Russian planes are OK, the interior is the drawback. Again, worth the experience. Flights to Canada are operated with 2 leased TACA's A320s, these are surely OK. - Spotting at the airports is something to be very careful about, the police make you switch it off if they see you....

A few hours later we got the dinner, a tray with decent typical airliner meal. Only that the crew either threw or put it on the table with some violence, with a “eat and shut up” attitude. Food was OK, and we noticed they did not fill the soft drink glasses much and those were tiny white plastic cups that you normally buy 20 a pack in supermarket for picnics. After eating the pax converted the cabin into a living room and a bar was established in the rear galley, with surely being illegal as it was not announced and all was paid cash in a discrete manner. With alcohol pumping in the noise became higher until most of the people went to sleep. The crew had to ask via the PA for the noisiest to let the others rest (as no other type of time killer was possible). A female flight attendant dropped some drink on a 3 year kid sitting in the middle row, and continued without a word. The kid’s father was nearby and went to complain. The F/A had the “Shut the f**k up” face and the man pulled...