jefi99

PROLOGUE
Jan 3, 2011. Spent the last three days in Argentina's fantastic capital with a friend. He is heading for Mendoza, I want to go to Uruguay. Original plan was to catch a ferry to Colonia, then tour Uruguay a bit, and then end up in Porto Alegre in Brazil, from where I have a flight to Rio, and later back to Europe.

I woke up a bit late with a hangover. Trying to book a ferry to Colonia, and a hotel. Neither is easy. Hotels seems to be sold out, or expensive. And only few ferry departures have seats. Hmm. Walk down to the ferry agencies, just a few blocks from my hotel. First one confirms: No seats available today. Next one. Only the last ferry (arriving very late in Colonia) has availability. Hmm again. Head back to hotel. My buddy is trying to convince me to stay one more day. I start to browse the internet for flights to Uruguay. Plenty of availability. I take a cab to the regional airport of Aeroparque (AEP). Both SOL, Pluna and Aerolineas Argentinas fly this short hop over the river. SOL would be the most exotic with their Saab 340 propeller, while Pluna would be CRJ900, and Aerolineas would do it with 737's.
Long story short. I walk up to AR tickes sales (after also talking to the other airlines flying to Uruguay).

agent: I can sell you a ticket to a flight scheduled to leave 20 minutes ago. It is 90min delayed
jefi99: I'll take it
agent: Ok, that'll be ARP548, and can I see you ticket out of Uruguay
jefi99: Errrh, I plan to take the bus, or something...?
agent: Uruguayan immigration will demand to see your ticket out of the country. Otherwise both you and Aerolineas Argentinas will get into trouble.
jefi99: Hmm, just a minute. Hold the reservation.

I run down to the other terminal, where I had noticed an airline called BQB (which is also the name of the leading ferry company between Argentina and Uruguay). They fly from Uruguay to Porto Alegre. I walk up to the very small booth.

jefi99: I want a ticket from Montevideo to Porto Alegre on January 6th. Can you sell me that, and issue it right away?
BQB agent: sure!

So 10 minutes later I am back at AR ticket agent, getting my ticket issued and catches an uneventful flight to MVD.
BTW, Uruguayan immigration never asked me for a ticket out of the country.

5Q 604 BQB Líneas Aéreas
06JAN11 0720
MVD-RVY-POA (Montevideo-Rivera-Porto Alegre)
ATR 72-200 CX-JPL named Antoine De Saint-Exupery, delivered 24APR10
Seat assigned: 6B

After three great days in America's most southern capital, I am heading to MVD again. I arrive at the architectural pearl of the new Carrasco airport building at 6.10 a.m. Unfortunately it is still dark, so I do not get the full enjoyment of seeing the airport building from landside in daylight.

Check-in wasn't opened when I arrived at the counter. Only a couple of people in front of me. I went to check out what the nearby McCafe had to offer, but overpriced coffee and molded cinnamon buns wasn't what I wanted for breakfast, so a few minutes later I headed back to the check-in line, where not only check-in agents had arrived, but out of the blue also around 10 other passengers!
For people familiar with traveling at these latitudes of South America, this is not an uncommon view:

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I usually prefer aisle seats, but I decided to ask for a window seat. Check-in agent informed me, that I was given an aisle seat (6B), and all passengers were allocated in the middle of the aircraft, and it was not possible to change this.

I walked thru immigration and security, only to find a totally empty departure area. One tax-free shop, a café and another small shop. Thats it! There were also a VIP-lounge and another café/bar, which was closed.
I checked out the whole airport (which can be done in less than five minutes). No planes at any of the gates!

So boarding started at 6.55 a.m., and within short time, we were all gathered in a bus covered in Johnny Walker-advertisement, heading for the ATR.

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jefi99

First leg MVD-RVY
ATR's have the passenger door at the back, so the most convenient seat is usually the last rows. BQB operates only two aircrafts, both ATR72's, fitted with 68 seats. One class only.

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On the first leg of this flight to POA, we were approximately 28-30 pax onboard (two Californian backpackers, a German girl, yours sincerely (Danish), the rest Uruguayans and Brazilians), all seated in rows 6-14, due to weight/balance. My seat was 6B, and in seat 6A was a quite large young Brazilian lady, so I sat down in 5A. The friendly stewardess apparently knew that rows 1-5 was not to be used, so she asked to see my boarding pass. I just told her I had 6B, and when she looked at the limited space of that particular seat due to the volume of the 6A-pax, I was given a heads up to sit in 5A. But then I noticed that 5A unfortunately reclined when I leaned back (without pushing the recline-button), I moved to 5B.
The aircraft had a "new car" smell, and it seemed to have just left the assembling line just a few weeks ago.

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Seat pitch was ok for such a short flight:

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We took of after a taxi tour around most of the airport area, including the military area close to where the propellers were parked.

I have flown ATR's with airlines such as Eurowings, Cimber, Vietnam Airlines, Total Linhas Aereas, DAT, CSA and Lao Airways, and I honestly did not know that they still made those birds. So I was quite surprised to also se the small monitors with IFE. I don't recall to have ever seen that on a propeller...? Screens showed destination info and BQB commercials.

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So, we took off at 7.35, and shortly after two two cabin attendants (one male, one female) came through with drinks and a cup cake. I got a glass of sparkling water and a cup of coffee. They had a variety of juices, coke and other sodas, tea, coffee. I didn't see any alcoholic drinks, but this was early morning, so personally I didn't care. Drinks were served in real glasses and cups. I just love such fantastic details. The cup cake tasted very good. I wish my mom would make them as good as these!

BQB has an inflight magazine, and one also finds a weekly gossip magazine of some kind in the seat pocket.

Some shots of the landscape just before landing (the propellers look weird when photographed!). Forests and grassing cattle:

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We landed at 8.32 in one of the smallest airports I have ever been to. Rivera International Airport is located in the northern part of Uruguay, very close to the brazilian border. It is served three times weekly by BQB. No competitors on this route. The oneway price for the domestic part of the route is just under US$100 incl taxes.
Despite being a very small airport, it has all the features of an international airport, including customs officers on duty, Federal Police, immigration. It had a small tower, a fire truck, a spectator/spotter terrace, and from what I could see also a small shop/café inside.

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In RVY, some 16-18 pax left the aircraft, the rest of us were told to stay. The captain walked through the cabin, greeting the passengers. Around 20 new pax boarded the plane in RVY, both uruguayans and brazilians. I wondered if it is used as a local airport by brazilians living on the other side of the border?

We took off from RVY at 8.57 a.m., and just as we taxied, I noticed the fire truck driver walked to his fire truck to take a seat behind the steering wheel. Talk about being stand by for emergencies!

The male cabin attendant spoke quite good English, but despite having a very English name, the female attendant didn't seem to understand anything but Spanish.

This time they served the exact same stuff. I little boring, but the cup cake tasted as good as the first time. This time I opted for Coke instead of water, though:

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Some shots from just before landing:

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We touched down at 9.55 a.m., and taxied to an area next to the Shell fuel trucks. It really smelled of fuel when we deboarded. A bus were waiting and to us to the arrival area.

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After immigration, I went to the luggage carousel, and after a minute or two, my suitcase came as the first one!

Conclusion:
I would categorize BQB as a boutique airline, and if I had the opportunity, I would be happy to fly with them in the future. I would actually rate them as best airline in the region!

BQB flies to a number of destinations in Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil and soon also Paraguay. Here is the route map according to the inflight magazine:

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They have since then added Cataratas Iguazu, and maybe more routes

cmte_valle

There was a ticketing office from BQB near Holiday Inn I remember, but I ended up not considering them as an alternative for my early morning flight back to GRU, you can check my TR here if you want -> http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...u-mvd-tam.html

jefi99

It is still there, actually in the Radisson building, next to the casino.
They don't fly to GRU.

cmte_valle

I know they don't fly to GRU, the option was to get out of PDP with them until POA and then take a TAM flight home, to much fuss for me I'd rather get up at three fifteen am. =D