Transfer in Lisbon
The flight from Paris Orly lands in Lisbon on time. I have about eighty minutes before my onward connection to Casablanca.
Lisbon airport is a horrible place. I‘m not sure when the airport was built, but I suspect it had already reached capacity around the time I was born.
TAP Air Portugal non-Schengen Lounge
At least the non- Schengen area is located in the newer part of the terminal. TAP operates a small lounge here, which is right after passport control. The lounge is fairly small and cozy. Regrettably, it has no outside views.
The buffet is surprisingly well stocked with a large variety of hot and cold food items.
I don‘t stay in the lounge for long, though, as there are a few aircraft I‘d like to have a closer look at. The advantage of the apparent lack of apron space at Lisbon means that aircraft come right up to the building.
Boarding
I pass the gate and head downstairs to ground level. We‘re being bussed to the aircraft today, which you‘ll never hear me complain about.
I wait to board last, to give the many families a wide berth while they get themselves and their many kids sorted.
The Cabin & Seat
The Embraer fleet is operated by Portugalia on behalf of TAP.
In Business Class the adjacent seat is kept empty. On the port side, there is no row 1, so row 2 is the bulkhead.
Seat pitch is comfortable and adequate for a flight of seventy minutes.
Personally, I think Lisbon airport is an accident waiting to happen. The amount of traffic serving the airport is quite high, and yet there is only a single runway. Also, the confined space means that the main taxiway from the apron does not run the full length of the runway. Therefore, widebodies that require the full runway length have to hold at the intersection, cross the runway in between arrivals and departures and then continue taxiiing to the north end of the runway on the other side.
The Crew
The crew on this flight are friendly, but, with all due respect, rather useless. As on the previous leg from Orly, there is so much hand luggage that during boarding even I start having my doubts if it’ll all fit. The last passenger to board is a young Canadian. She heads to the back of the plane with her reasonably sized carry on. A short while later, she returns to the front of the cabin and tells the maître de that there’s no more place left. The MC just just shrugs her shoulders and turns away wordlessly. I suggest to the young lady to put the offending carry on under the seat of row 3, which is empty. But when she tries, the MC tells her she can’t do that because its Business Class. So, eventually, I stand up, remove my case from the overhead bin and put it under the seat on row three so that the Canadian can put her bag up instead. I mean, seriously?
The Meal
As you can imagine, so far I’m not exactly overcome with the warm and fuzzzies for Portugalia and this crew. Alas, the snack doesn’t do anything to change my mind.
The sandwich should be tuna with ruccola, tomato and egg. Only, the good stuff was obviously all placed in the middle, because the section of sandwich I have only has a sliver of boiled egg and the slimmest soupçon of tomato. Not to mention that the bread is so stale that it’s hard to swallow without a drink of water.
The fruit is nice though.
Arrival
Eventually, we start our descent into Casablanca. The cockpit crew makes an announcement, informing us that the temperature on the ground is 28 degrees.
Immigration is tedious. The officers are obviously more interested in chatting with their colleagues than doing any actual work. And even once you finally get through immigration, your passport is checked three more times on the way to the exit. I wouldn’t even mind, if it weren’t patently obvious that the people checking the passports have no idea what they’re doing and what they’re looking for. One of them takes the passport and looks through it until he finds an entry stamp. He pretends to study it carefully and tries to look important while he’s at it. Eventually, he nods and lets me pass. For a moment I am inclined to point out that what he was looking at was my entry stamp for Colombia. Not Morocco. Not even of this year. But then I can’t be bothered. I have a train to catch.
Getting into the City
There is a train that runs from the airport to Casablanca Port station, which is about three minutes on foot from the Sofitel, where I‘m staying. Unfortunately, the train only runs once an hour at 50 minutes past the hour. If the immigration process weren‘t so ridiculously and unnecessarily cumbersome to enter Morocco, I probably would have easily made the train. But things being what they are, I reach the platform just in time to watch the train pulling out of the station.
So instead, I head for the taxi booth and prepay a ride by car to the hotel. Whatever you do, don‘t just step outside and grab the first taxi. You will be ripped off so hard it‘ll make your eyes water.
Conclusion
My first flight from Orly to Lisbon on TAP was rather nice. The crew were excellent, the food was good and the long-haul configuration of the cabin was a very pleasant and welcome surprise. However, the second leg to Casablanca was quite a let down. Boarding in Lisbon took a long time, mainly because the gate agent wasn‘t properly managing the passengers and their copious luggage. The cabin crew were just plain useless and the snack was rather pathetic.
Hi William——I think the lounge you used in Lisbon was the one i used, although when i used it the furnishing was plusher—– couches and easy chairs. Agree about the TAP service too—First flight great—second flight back to London,indifferent at best. NO service for the first 30 minutes, and a mysterious number of self upgraders who appeared a few minutes before departure!
Hi Peter, I really just don’t get it. You’d think that for an airline consistency in its service delivery would be their top priority.
Well yes you would think that——but really,apart from a few at the top, i dont think too many airline managements are over concerned about the passenger experience.
guys have you every experienced a service by KLM city hopper in business?? Lisbon to Casablanca is a 50 minutes flight. I just don’t get certain complaints. Go and take LH, AF, KL, SN or whoever for a 50 minute flight and see what you get!
Hi Hugo, while I agree that flying with SN can be a major source of major suckage, I don’t agree the same can be said about KL, AF, and even Lufthansa. I also think that one of AF and KL’s best features is the level of professionalism and consistency of their crews, even on a short sector, which is a far cry from what the TAP crew provided on the way to CMN. I generally don’t expect anything much on a flight with a block time of 80 minutes. But I think if an airline is going to make the effort, then they ought to do it properly.
I too found the arrivals (and departures) process at CMN tedious to the point of being odious. The immigration agents have obviously found a cushy job for life as they have absolutely no sense of purpose, let alone care to be efficient at all. The multiple instances of checking one’s passport for no apparent reason drives me absolutely crazy.
I think what it comes down to is the government trying to create jobs out of nothing. Even if it means doing a pointless task like looking through somebody’s passport
Quite a let down. Sometimes regional subsidiaries are like that, though.
Fair enough. I can accept that they have different standards. But this had more to do with h bad manners and rudeness. You don’t just turn your back on somebody and walk away when they’re talking to you. For example, she could have suggested tagging the bag and putting it in the hold.