EuroAtlantic Airways.

EuroAtlantic Airways.

I have flown with EuroAtlantic airways several times over the years and here is my 5 cents about the airline.

EuroAtlantic airways is a Portuguese airline that very few people book. They only have a few scheduled flights between Portugal and a couple of the former Portuguese colonies in Africa. But they are often helping other airlines out when they have trouble with their own planes. And they do chartered flights too.

I have flown them a few times when I booked a ticket with TAP Air Portugal or with SATA Air Azores. But I know that they are also used quite a lot by other airlines, such as Norwegian, who often have problems with their long distance planes. And since Norwegian do not have spare planes in that case, they hire in other airlines to carry out flights for them. Such as EuroAtlantic Airways.

The fleet is old at EuroAtlantic Airways.

One thing that might put off people a little when they first board a EuroAtlantic flight, is that the planes are quite dated. The majority of their fleet are Boeing 767 planes that are +20 years old.

They do also have some newer Boeing 777 though.

Euroatlantic Airways.

Euroatlantic plane parked at Lisbon Airport.

But the planes are actually quite nice.

Good thing about their old Boeing 767 though, is that they are quite comfortable. Legspace there is considerably better than on most other flights these days. I am talking about economy class here by the way, as this is what I mostly fly. They tend to have 2-3-2 seating, which I really like. I love that only 1 in 7 seats is a dreaded middle seat that no-one really wants. And leg space is good.

I like the 2-3-2 seating.

I like the 2-3-2 seating.

Legspace is ok when you fly the Boeing 767 with EuroAtlantic Airways.

Legspace is ok when you fly the Boeing 767 with EuroAtlantic Airways.

Well trained and friendly staff.

I also like the staff onboard EuroAtlantic Airways. They have always seemed well trained to me and always ready to help whenever possible when I have asked for assistance. They do not seem tired and overworked like I often see at some budget airlines.

Food and drik on EuroAtlantic Airways.

Because this is mostly an airline that you will fly because another airline has hired them, the onboard service will depend on what they have been told to serve, by the airline that hired them. When I have been flying them, they always served me a hot meal and free drinks including wine and beer. Usually a very decent Douro or Alentejo wine. This is because you get that with TAP Air Portugal. So you will also get it when they replace a TAP plane. But if you fly them when they are hired by Norwegian, then you will have to pay for everything. That is because Norwegian does not have any onboard service on their flights, unless you pay for it. So it’s hard to generalise about their onboard service.

They have a nice inflight magazine.

Inflight magazines might not be of interest to many. But because I fly as much as I do, I take a bit of a nerdy interest in them. And it’s surprisingly good with EuroAtlantic Airways. It’s actually quite small, but the articles are well written. And they are about subjects that I mostly find interesting. Most inflight magazines are absolutely dreadful. Articles tend to be fairly uninteresting and 75% of the magazine tends to be commercials for things like Hugo Boss and Dolce Gabbana. At EuroAtlantic Airways it’s quite refreshing to see that a lot less space is wasted for useless commercials.

I like the inflight magazine at EuroAtlantic Airways.

I like the inflight magazine at EuroAtlantic Airways.

My overall impression with EuroAtlantic Airways.

This is all in all an airline that I quite like. Like I mentioned, the planes are old. They are so old it’s almost a retro flight when you fly with them. But they have good leg space and nice flight attendants. When I am supposed to fly with another airline and realise at boarding that it’s EuroAtlantic doing the flight instead, then I am mostly happy about this. So hopefully this quirky little Portuguese Airline will survive for many years to come. They are surely quite a bit better than most budget airlines that fly the skies these days.

 

Claus.

3 Comments

  1. seems an airline i will book basically on the friendly staff and the leg space. some airline do have small leg space that my leg hurts so bad throughout the flight.

  2. Dimetrios Athanassiou

    How is that possible so old over 20 years Airplanes are allow still to fly? What abt the engines been changed during these years?

    • If an airplane is well maintained, it can fly over 30 years without any problems. The main reason why old planes are being replaced by newer planes as often as you see, is because newer planes are more fuel efficient than older ones.

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