VAA terminal – crew operating the return flight was waiting


Arrival Board


Why Saab 2000?
Saab Turbprop operations in the US has long been limited to Saab 340, and I have flown a couple AA Saab 340 flights to San Diego and Santa Barbara from LAX, as well as a REX Australian domestic flights to Albury. Saab 2000 has been mostly limited to European flights, and the plane looks very smart and reading so many trip reports on Air Darwin and Crossair have attracted me to this particular aircraft type. I am determined to fly it in 2011 and have thought about various options, like OLT from Bremen/Toulouse, Darwin from Lugano to various destinations, and then I came across the Swedish operator, Golden Air, and a couple flights operated for Blue 1. I immediately find that Golden Air has operated various Vaasa or Turku to Stockholm flights using Saab 2000 exclusively. At the end I narrow it to Vaasa because Blue 1 offers a very attractive low fare to Vaasa. I am definitely not disappointed at the end.

KF/DC 467 VAA-ARN Lv1835 Arr1840 Saab 2000 Turboprop SE-LSE
Vaasa terminal is very compact as expected. It has a nice charm to it with various interesting decorations. It is compact with airline offices, check-in counter, baggage claim, and gates all the in same level. It definitely has a certain charm to it and it is rare to have the opportunity to be the only passenger in a terminal building, not to mention that I am the only Asian passenger throughout the afternoon and it definitely makes me feel self-conscious.

Main Entrance to the terminal



ATC Tower


Flags showing airlines serving Vaasa



Departure Board


Check-in area



SAS/Blue 1


Self-service kiosk – that is how I checked in