Preface, just a couple of lines.
I didn’t plan to write a review of this flight, because it happened spontaneously, as they usually say, from the ship to the ball. And in itself it became a banal, unremarkable flight, during which I didn’t shoot much. Therefore, I ask you in advance not to judge strictly. Still, I will try to squeeze the maximum out of my memories and dig up relevant photographs in the archive. I decided to write for one reason only - a non-trivial departure airport. Firstly, it has not yet been found on this resource, and secondly, it is unlikely that I will find myself in it again in the future. We're talking about Lanseria.
There are two airports in Johannesburg. And if one of them - them. O.R. Tambo, let’s say, is quite famous in wide circles, from where it flies to all continents (America, Europe, Asia and Australia), while Lanseria is mainly used to service private flights, business aviation, and at the same time works with a local low-cost airline called FlySafair.
There are a ton of flights a day from Johannesburg to Cape Town from two airports, with the lion's share from Tambo. But my choice fell on Lanseria for a number of reasons. The first and main thing is that it was located closer to where I live in Joburg. The second reason: Tambo is the bustle of a huge airport, which takes a lot of time and energy, incommensurate with the upcoming domestic short flight. Tambo is good for long-haul flights, before which you can leisurely soak up the anticipation of the flight in any of the many cafes, looking at the airfield (and there are wonderful views of the apron), replete with liveries from different parts of the world. And the third reason is that I have never flown (or flown in) from Lanseria before. It was necessary to check another box.
By the way, I bought a plane ticket through some Russian aggregator, paid with a Russian card (which, despite being abroad, works if paid on Russian online resources), price ticket amounted to 6,200 rubles.
Moving on to the review.
The flight took place in early August. At this time in South Africa, especially in the continental part, where Joburg is located, it is still winter. And although you can’t tell from the surrounding environment, you can feel it, especially in the evenings and mornings, when the thermometer doesn’t reach zero for a few degrees.
I got to Lanseria by taxi. The path to the airport was surrounded by vacant lots around. And in general, the unfolding picture outside the window was not pleasing to the eyes.
We are leaving the highway towards the airport:
At the entrance to it, signs of civilization appeared:
The airport itself appeared. The small, cultivated shed building did not at all resemble a terminal in its exterior. The associations presented an image of an office administrative building with a small parking lot opposite for a couple of dozen parking spaces, which were more than enough:
I got out of the taxi in front of entrance to the terminal, I took a picture in the opposite direction, towards the parking lot:
The entrance to the terminal is sloping down, leading, as they say, to the “ground flow” (ground floor):
On the sign in the photo above, one of the signs with a pictogram in the form of binoculars was called “observation deck”. I didn’t pay attention to it then, and the presence of this area at the airport was a pleasant surprise.
I go inside the terminal building:
After entering, if turn right - check-in counters:
I checked in for the flight online, and an aisle seat came up randomly, so I decided to go to the check-in counters and, if possible, change my seat to the window seat. But first I paid attention to the board to see if there were any delays or cancellations:
Everything is fine, my flight FA307 is leaving on schedule. The board said that the monopolist here was the airline FlySafair and all flights for the coming day were only to Cape Town and Durban.
In the middle of the hall there are non-working self-registration kiosks:
I went to the registration counters, where, at my request, they changed my seat to 12F:
I was 159 th registered passenger, from which he concluded that the plane would be full.
To the left of the check-in counters is the arrival area:
The check-in area had 17 counters, which was more for such an airport than enough. The third part of them was working:
On the floor above there was a small cafe:
It seemed to me that it was the only one here, and after examining the entire airport I was going have lunch there.
Look into the toilet. It turned out to be clean and tidy:
I accidentally saw the entrance to another cafe. Upon entering, I discovered that it had access to a huge balcony stretching across the entire faFrom the balcony there was a gorgeous view of the hangars, aircraft parking, the airfield, in general, the entire meager infrastructure of the airport:
Despite the cold (the cafe was in the open air), almost all the tables were busy. I also decided to have lunch here. I made an order, sat down at a table and watched what was happening on the airfield. Many private planes took off and landed. From the hangars on the left, small planes periodically flew out with the bass hum of a propeller or with the piercing whistle of a jet engine and, passing by the balcony, created a deafening noise. There was something savory about it, having lunch to the sound of airplane engines, either directly or through a walking echo. This is an interesting cafe at Lanseria Airport. Apart from a variety of private flights, at first there were not a single large airline aircraft. However, after a while they began to arrive in bulk. The first FlySafair Boeing 737 landed:
A few minutes later another one landed, but with a slightly different livery:
Lunch was finished quickly, since it quickly cooled down in the cold, but after finishing the meal I sat in this cafe for about an hour. Wi-Fi at the airport is powerful, you can watch videos. But to connect to the Internet, you need a local SIM card, since authorization occurs through a code that arrives as an SMS to a local number. It's time to go to the clean zone:
First, security control:
There were very few passengers at the check, it went through literally in a matter of seconds. After checking, exit to the gates, which are accessed by stairs and a ramp:
At gate 3 there was boarding for a delayed flight to Cape Town:
The next one, the 4th gate, was empty:
From this place I took a picture of the plane that was landing:
Here, at gate 4, there was a smoking room, designed in the form of a huge capsule:
On the wall there is a stand listing items prohibited for transportation:
On the apron, taking advantage of the lull after the continuous landings of Boeings, they towed the Cessna from one hangar to another:
After that, another Boeing 737 FlySafair landed, arriving from Cape Town . He took off the moment I arrived in Lanseria (followed him on 24Flightradar.com). I had to fly on it.
Turns into the parking lot directly opposite me:
As soon as the Boeing stopped , employees rushed towards him from all sides, each carrying out their task. They worked efficiently and harmoniously:
Passengers got off within five minutes after the stop. After some time, boarding was announced for passengers heading to Cape Town. Boarding was carried out through two ramps:
Since my row is 12th, I go through the front ramp:
I get on board, traditional shot along the plane in front of the door:
We were unlucky with the seat: although it was near the window, for some reason there was no porthole on this particular row. For viewing, a small piece of the window was left at the front porthole:
If the passenger in front tilts the back of his seat back, he will not leave a single chance to see something overboard.
The thought of that to change seats did not even arise, since the plane was loaded to capacity:
The cabin layout was completely economy class. The 1st row on the left was immediately behind the door.
At low-cost airlines, all processes are carried out promptly; before we had time to look back, evaluate the interior and fasten our seat belts, we moved to the starting point:
We exit to the end of the runway behind which the installation of end strip lights is visible:
Just before entering the runway, the plane slowed down and stopped. The reason for this was a private plane coming in to land:
Taking off:
Nothing interesting happened during the flight. Thanks to the passenger in front, he did not recline his seat:
As you can see from the photo, the safety instructions are pasted directly on the backrest. In the pocket there was only an in-flight catering menu, which is provided for a fee on FlySafair flights:
Opening the booklet, I looked at the menu and prices:
Despite reasonable prices (to find out in rubles, multiply them, roughly speaking, by 5), the choice is not very rich. It's good that I had lunch at the airport. He didn’t take anything extra, but passengers actively bought chips, snacks, and to wash it down. In fact, almost the entire flight on the flight level, from the first to the last rows, there was brisk trading, and if it had not been for the start of the descent, it would have continued.
The duration of the flight was 1 hour 45 minutes. About 25 minutes before landing, the commander announced the descent.
Through the porthole, Table Mountain appeared in the distance. This indicated that the landing would be carried out with a turn over the ocean. If the plane was planning to land from the other side of the runway, the mountain would not be visible, it could be seen immediately before landing and this would be a more spectacular sight. And in my case, I could only see it from afar, half of the plateau of which was hidden by clouds:
We are approaching the ocean. The plane was still flying quite high, but it was already possible to see the airport in the distance. In the photo below, it is inconspicuously visible from the runway parallel to the Table Mountain plateau and the edge of the engine approximately halfway between them:
The plane is wedged far inland over the surface of the water ( in this place the Atlantic Ocean, although at the departure point, Johannesburg, it is closer to the Indian Ocean), in order to gradually reduce the altitude:
I filmed it on video before landing. When approaching from the ocean, Cape Town presents an unpleasant sight - townships float from the edge of the ocean to the strip itself. It’s as if the plane lands somewhere in provincial Congo, for example in Lubumbashi, and not in a city that is usually in the top ten in various rankings of the most beautiful cities in the world:
We landed and taxied to the telescopic bridge. Through the window opposite us we could see the keels of planes of local airlines, as well as the American United Airlines and the English British Airways:
I exit through the jet bridge:
Next I follow the signs:
Since the flight is domestic, there is no border control, I immediately go down to the baggage claim area:
I pass her by, since I didn’t have any luggage with me:
And I head to the exit:
I go out to the arrival hall:
Here I needed to look around and figure out how to get to the Camps Bay area where I planned to stay.
The outside of the Cape Town airport terminal looks like this:
The special feature or even the highlight of Cape Town airport is that that there are no access roads for cars in front of the terminal building faPassengers can pick up and drop off either in a nearby multi-level parking lot, or you need to walk along an underground passage to a separate terminal for renting a car.
I’ll add more information about Cape Town airport to cover it in more detail, but already in within another review. This is a different review than the current one I planned to create when I went on the road, so I hope it will be more informative.
Thanks for reading! New directions, safe flights for all of us!
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