| Date | Airline | Flight | Type | Regn | Routing | Time | Miles | Remarks | ||
| Back | 24 Nov 16 | TS | 477 | A310-304 | C-GTSW | YYZ-YUL | 00:46 | 324 mi | My 1st A310 flight! | Next |
Air Transat A310-304 C-GTSW at the gate in Toronto a couple hours prior to departure. At the time of this photo I'd just deplaned from WestJet 737-600 C-GWSI on flight 589 from Montreal.
After I returned from Montreal on my first flight aboard a 737-600, I was wandering the terminal and noticed an Air Transat A310 parked at a gate with an 1800hrs departure time to Montreal. Hmmm. Could I possibly book a seat on this flight and this becomes my first flight aboard an A310 instead of my flight to the Azores tomorrow??
Departure time was still a couple hours away and I wandered the terminal looking for a way to book this flight (WiFi service with my phone was next to non-existant at YYZ). Knowing I would also have to return from Montreal the price for these two flights at such short notice could possibly approach the cost of my roundtrip to the Azores. EEEK!
After wandering the terminal for a bit I made it back to the Air Transat A310 at the gate and an agent was working the flight. I asked her about getting a seat on it and she explained I'd have to call and make a reservation on the phone. Thankfully there was a pay phone near the gate so with the Air Transat toll-free number in hand I was able to call and book a seat on the flight.
By the time the gate agent received a confirmation e-mail for my booking most of the passengers were onboard. The agent then hit me with a surprise: she was going to seat me up front in Club Class. Nice :-) ! Once onboard I was told to take any seat I wished in the forward cabin so I chose 2A. As I sat there waiting for push-back I was told I'd been invited onto the flight deck to meet the flight crew. Awesome :-) !
Passengers were still coming onboard for a little while then finally the forward door was closed in preparation for pushback. I was going to get my first ride on an A310 a day earlier than originally planned! Never mind the fact I didn't yet have a return flight booked from Montreal back to Toronto...I'd hopefully be able to take care of that at YUL.
Finally we pushed back and soon we were enroute to the departure runway. Once airborne the flight attendant in Club Class brought me a light snack and a glass of red wine.
We chatted about the history of Air Transat and the fact they used to fly L-1011s and L-1011-500s among other aviation topics.
Light snack and red wine. Earphones are in the round case.
A few more interior photos:
With only 45 minutes or so in the air (distance similar to PHX-LAX) we were soon descending and on final approach for YUL. Touchdown was smooth and we made our way to the gate.
After everybody deplaned I asked if I could take a few photos of the cabin...especially the rear section where the cabin floor slopes up ever so slightly. It was cool to be wandering around in the back end of an older Airbus widebody...the A350 dispenses with the slope in the floor.
After I deplaned I had the long walk through the terminal from gate 67 (I think) to the WestJet gates. In my experience today Dorval's WiFi is far superior to Toronto's. I was able to get online and book a flight back to Toronto with ease. Yes, it was relatively expensive but if I hadn't flown this Air Transat A310 this evening I'd have been thinking about it for a long time as a missed opportunity.
There were a couple nice foreign widebodies at the gates: British Airways and Royal Air Maroc 787-8s...my first time seeing both these jets in service. It was great that they were so very close to me and I could take such close up photos:
British Airways 787-8 G-ZBJB being prepared to operate the return service BA 94 YUL-LHR.
Royal Air Maroc 787-8 CN-RGB being prepared for AT 209 YUL-CMN (Montreal - Casablanca).
Below are some images from Flight Aware and Flight Radar 24 detailing this flight:
Please click on the image below to see more flights C-GTSW performed during this time:
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