Flight Report: Montevideo - Porto Alegre

For work, I'm traveling to Porto Alegre this week, which gives me the chance to write the blog's first flight report :)

I flew on Azul flight AD8741, an Embraer ERJ-195 with registration number PR-AYI, which, according to Airfeets.Net, is 8.7 years old:

I’ve taken this flight several times, and it really is a very convenient option for traveling to Porto Alegre, since the other options (Gol or LATAM) involve a layover (at GRU or GIG)

The flight departs at 3:00 p.m., so I was already at the airport by 12:10 p.m. It was pretty busy, since that’s when several flights depart, including Air Europa and Iberia, which are among the largest airlines flying to Montevideo:

The Azul check-in area was very quiet:

I didn’t check any luggage because I’m traveling with just my carry-on and a backpack.

Before entering the boarding area, I noticed that a Starbucks is set to open soon on the first floor, where a San Roque restaurant used to be:

It’s really nice to have more options, because so far the only places here have been McDonald’s and Patria.

I went through the self-service check-in kiosks, scanned my boarding pass, and found a pretty long line for security. According to the screens, the wait was 18 minutes, but I think it was a little shorter. I went through security without any problems, and then through immigration. Immigration was pretty quick, but I’ll soon have a passport with a chip, so I hope it’ll be even faster.

I’d already been at the airport 15 days earlier, so I didn’t stop by the duty-free shop. The flight was scheduled to board at Gate 2 (it was later changed to Gate 5), and since it was around 1:00 p.m., I decided to have lunch at the Patria restaurant located between Gates 1, 2, and 3, 4.

Although Patria’s concept has changed and it’s now more “self-service,” the prices are still quite high. For example, a sandwich and a juice cost me $362 (approximately $10 as of April 23).

There are several options for salads, baguettes, sandwiches, empanadas, and light bites, but everything is quite expensive.

And after eating, I took advantage of the beautiful, comfortable seats overlooking the runway to do a little plane spotting and start writing this post :)

There we see the Gol 737, fresh off a flight from GRU and preparing to return to GRU at 3:10 p.m.:

We also see Iberia’s Airbus A330 departing for Madrid with a few minutes’

delay:

While I was taking a photo of the Iberia plane, I could see PR-AYI arriving from Porto Alegre and beginning its approach, but I couldn’t get a good shot of it.

The flight from Porto Alegre arrived 15 minutes early, so it looked like there wouldn’t be any delays on my flight. Here we see it pulling up to the gate:

The children’s area, across from the Aeropuertos VIP Club office:

Boarding took place at Gate 5. On previous occasions, we were sent to a remote stand, but this time we boarded via the jet bridge.

My seat, 16A—because, obviously, #TeamWindow!

The ERJ-195 is quite comfortable for a flight of just over an hour. The seat next to me was empty, so I had plenty of space:

Pushback and taxiing to the runway:

Here’s a video of the taxiing and takeoff:

Cutting through the Montevideo clouds:

And then the sun came out:

The service, as always on Azul, consisted of a can of a soft drink (Coca-Cola or Guaraná) or a glass of water, and snacks. They don’t serve hot drinks.

There were several snack options to choose from: potato chips, cereal flakes, and bacon-flavored wheat snacks. I ordered water and the bacon snacks:

I think the service is perfectly adequate for the length of the flight. I saw several people who even asked for more than one snack packet, or who went back later to get more.

After the service, the flight proceeded without incident, and within a few minutes we began our descent. The flight lasted one hour and five minutes.

Once again, flying through the clouds:

And Porto Alegre is already in sight:

I think the river is the Jacuí, but I’m not 100% sure.

The landing in Porto Alegre was very smooth and calm:

We taxied to the gate—also with the jet bridge—and, of course, the usual impatient passengers were already standing up even though the seatbelt sign was still on:

After the rush of eager passengers, the disembarkation was very smooth, with a wait of about 10 minutes at immigration and less than 5 minutes at customs.

It was a very pleasant flight; every time I’ve flown with Azul, the experience has been calm and hassle-free.

And that wraps up my first flight report!

I’ll try to keep improving the quality of the photos, content, etc., but I hope you found this interesting. In a few days, I’ll be sharing my experience on the return flight.

See you next time!

 

The playlist for this flight: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6a0VwipKg4iNz3oCF4bDZh