Arnur

Paying cash for fuel is actually not such an uncommon practice if a plane is making unscheduled stops in developing countries. Cargo charters, in particular, often carry tens of thousands of US$ on African routes.. I always wonder whether they are not concerned about armed robbery.

LH738

Thanks for posting the pictures. Very interesting scenes.

Arnur

After 27 days in Liberia, it was time to return to Europe. I had reconfirmed my flight at the town office of Brussels Airlines and had been advised to arrive at 1500 hours for a 1855 departure. Obviously, I chose to ignore this recommendation and left my office in Monrovia at 1600. About one hour later we arrived at Roberts International Airport (ROB), near the Liberian town of Harbel and the enormous Firestone Rubber Plantation. ROB boasts a single passenger terminal and was fairly crowded on this Friday evening with plenty of expatriates heading home. A blackboard served as the "departures screen" and I was delighted to see that SN 236 was chalked in as departing on time. The tiny depature hall featured about five check-in counters, one of which was taken up by Slok Air, checking in for Freetown, Conacry and Banjul (all of which are served by the same plane on the daily West African milk-run), while the remaining were taken up by Brussels Airlines. Before checkin-in, one had to line up at a separate counter for "document check", which basically means that one's travel documents were scrutinized by SN security staff. This measure, which is becoming increasingly common in Africa, seems mostly in place to deter illegal immigration and not surprisingly the only European person on the SN airport staff was the security supervisor. All in all, check-in took some 40 minutes, and with my luggage checked trough to FRA and my boarding passes in hand, I passed through immigration and a second security check. The departure hall features a few tired shops, a lively bar and a SN premium class lounge (basically a separate section of the main hall), which I was unable to visit due to the lack of lounge privileges on SN..

1 JUN 07 ROB - BRU (via DKR) SN 236 1855 - 0535 A330 Seat 31D

Knowing about the 2-4-2 configuration in coach class, I had gambled that an aisle seat in the center block would be my best bet for travelling without a seat mate and I was lucky again despite a fairly full load. This time, most of the passengers were actually originating in Liberia and we were only joined by a handful of passengers during our stop in Dakar. After a final security check on the runway, we took our seat onboard of the A330 and took off on time. The flying time from Monrovia to Senegal's capital Dakar was about one hour and twenty minutes. In-flight service on this sector was minimal, there was a cold drinks service (limited selection, they were out of apple juice) and the same stale cheese roll, which we had received on the in-bound flight from DKR four weeks earlier. No newspapers were available in Monrovia and we were told to wait until our departure from Senegal. While audio entertainment was available, the crew did not hand out any headsets. Clearly, catering for the sector from Africa to Belgium is done in Senegal, where the airplane is also refuelled and a new crew come onboard for the return flight.

We arrived in DKR at about 2020 and had to remain onboard while the plane was refuelled for almost one hour. Afterwards, a few more passengers joined the flight and we took off at about 2130 for the five hours flight to Brussels. Due to the late hour (it was alread around midnight in Belgium), this flight featured a somewhat abreviated dinner service. The main difference to the day-time flight was the absence of the drinks and nuts service before the main meal. Meal choices were beef or fish (what a surprise), along with a non-inspiring green salad and a nice desert pastry. While the meal does not win any prices for novelty (I had some nice curries, pasta dishes and even vegetarian pastries in coach class on KL/KQ), the quality of the meal was actually quite high by economy class standards. The beef was very tasty and well prepared and came with baby potatoes and onions, while the rolls were warm and the flight attendants came around with the bread basked once more during the meal. After a refreshing Stella Artois beer between ROB and DKR, I had a decent white wine with the meal. Surprisingly, the wine ex BRU had been South Africa (Solaris?, same as on KL/KQ), while the wine from Senegal was French. After the meal there was a tea/coffee service (no liquors afaik, unlike on the flight down) and then it was lights out.

My main complain about SN, besides the high prices and the lack of an alliance membership, is the poor inflight entertainment. There is no PTV and they were showing only a single movie during the 5-hours+ flight between DKR and BRU. Tonight's feature was 'Music and Lyrics', which I had seen before. Competing with the likes of AF/KL on routes to West Africa, SN really has to upgrade their entertainment system. From what I read about the offerings in business class, which features multiple channels but no video-on-demand, choices were not more impressive up front. The late departure from DKR and the fairly short flying time meant that we had a maximum of three hours to sleep, which I found pretty difficult. Sitting in front of a bulkhead, 31D also offers virtually no decline.

At about 0430 Brussels time, light went on for the breakfast service. That consisted of a warm chocolate pastry, coffee/tea and juice/water. The pastry was again surprisingly tasty and showed the French influence in Senegalese aircraft catering. While not very substantive, breakfast came less than four hours after the dinner service and was therefore absolutely sufficient. Arrival in BRU was on-time and I quickly cleared immigration and walked from the B pier to the A gates, clearing security again. While most shops were still closed at 0545 on a saturday morning, I did find an open café and helped myself to more coffee and a chocolate croissant.

02 JUN 07 BRU - FRA SN 2607 0630 - 0735 RJ85 Seat 7F

While SN now operates a number of B737 and A320-series aircraft, the flight to FRA is operated by a RJ85 inherited from the original Sabena's feeder carrier DAT. There were less than 20 passengers on today's flight, which departed from a remote bus gate.

While SN had attempted to win the support of the travelling public by offering a decent meal service in coach (featuring extravaganzas such as pizza on short European sectors), the recent merger with Virgin Express meant that SN has now joined the race to the bottom in terms of inflight service. Whereas the long-haul fleet continues to offer traditional business and coach class, the European network now features b.light (LCC-style coach with snacks, drinks and newspapers for purchase) and b.flex (basically economy plus, same seats but with free drinks, snacks and newspapers). While I can see the logic of having to compete with the likes of Ryanair on many routes, having just spent 1600 Euro on a coach ticket, I was not looking forward to pay 2 Euro for a small cup of Nescafé. Imagine my positive surprise, when the flight attendant walked up to me and offered me a special "transit box" and a free drink. It seems that SN actually continues to offer free food and drinks for people connecting to and from their long-haul network. The box contained another cheese sandwitch, a muffin and a plastic container with water. Together with the coffee, it actually made for a decent breakfast for the 50-minutes flight. The "transit box" concept actually seems a fair compromise for the strange mongrel, part network carrier, part LCC, which SN has become.

Arrival in FRA was on time and after a very long taxi we parked near on the LH Commutter ramp on the far side of terminal 2. We then spent another fiveteen minutes driving back in a bus to Terminal 1. By the time reached the arrival hall, my luggage was already circling on the belt. I was at the long distance train station at 0805, catching the ICE for the 50-minute ride to Siegburg/Bonn five minutes later.

In conclusion, I would rate Brussels Airlines in coach as follows:

Positive:
- Decent quality for food and beverage service, not much very inspiring, but solid.
- Modern equipment, good on-time performance.
- Very friendly flight attendants and ground crew.
- Good ticket office staff in Monrovia.
- 14 fairly obscure destinations in Africa
- BRU is a pleasant airport to transfer, not a lot of congestion
- "Transit box" concept for people connecting to/from long-haul routes

Negative:
- Outdated in-flight entertainment system.
- Monopoly pricing on certain routes
- no membership of global FFP alliance

Would I fly them again to Monrovia? If somebody else is paying, most definitively. Would I chose them over AF/KL/KQ where there is competition (say NBO, DKR or EBB)? Probably not.

intltravelgirl

I'll soon be traveling from London-Monrovia at least once a month. Anyone with experience on Astraeus Airlines? SN Brussels looks fine, but SO expensive...

SkyTeam777

I have an airside transit question for ROB. I am flying in on SN and have an international connection a few hours later. Is there a sterile, airside transit area where people can wait? and perhaps find an agent to assist with the boarding pass? Or is everyone pushed through immigration (which I would not be able to do since I won't have a visa).

AAtticus

Ignore--

DanielW

It's a very small airport without a transit facility, and as soon as you enter arrivals you arrive at immigration.

Thread is now closed.

DanielW
Moderator, Trip Reports.