FeuilladeTravel: Airline review: BRA Fokker 50 economy class, Stockholm Bromma to Trollhättan

BRA Fokker 50 economy class, Stockholm Bromma to Trollhättan
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01. Trip report introduction
02. BRA Fokker 50 economy class, Stockholm Bromma to Trollhättan
03. BRA Fokker 50 economy class, Trollhättan to Stockholm Bromma
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Stockholm Bromma (BMA) to Trollhättan (THN)

Date: 2018-06-29
Flight number: TF808
Aircraft: Fokker 50
Registration: SE-LEB
Age of aircraft: 30 years
Duration of flight: 0:55 (gate to gate)
Seat: 5E (economy class)

There is no seat map for the F50 on Seatguru.com

Like I explained in the previous post, this flight departed from Stockholm Bromma. This was the main airport of Stockholm until Arlanda opened in 1960-62, and the international traffic was moved there. Today, Bromma is mainly used by the regional airline BRA, although there are a couple of international routes as well (such as Brussels airlines to BRU, which I'll fly later this year). It is the third biggest airport in Sweden, with roughly the same amount of passengers as Stockholm Skavsta (NYO) and Malmö (MMX).

Although closer to downtown Stockholm, it is a little less convenient to get to BMA than to ARN (unless you live close by). I took the public transport tram which stops ten minutes from the airport, and walked the rest of the way.

Welcome to Stockholm Bromma

Looking more like a warehouse than an airport...

Control tower at BMA

BMA turned out to be a small and cramped airport. Security was inefficient, and once you were through, you had to pass through the tax-free shop, as the only way to the gates was through the store. I'm not a fan of that kind of layout. It's the same with one of the piers at ARN, although that isn't as cramped as BMA.

There was also a small restaurant and a kiosk, but there really is nothing else to see or do. I was airside with an hour to go until scheduled boarding time, and that was way too soon. There were few seats, and the waiting area was kind of smelly. Another thing to note is that there aren't really any gates at BMA. It is just one waiting hall, with a number of exits onto the tarmac, where you have to walk to remote stands. This also made it a bit more chaotic, as a number of flights were departing at roughly the same time.

Almost time for boarding

Here we are!

Painted in a BRA livery, but this was actually a leased aircraft from Amapola

Boarding was called right on time, and they started with children. There were actually some unaccompanied minors travelling on both this flight and the return flight, and it seemed most of them were travelling to/from their grandparents. BRA seemed to handle it well, as there was staff taking care of them both at BMA and at the considerably smaller airport at THN.

There is free seating on all BRA flights, so I made sure to get in the queue quite early, in order to secure a window seat. I sat in 5E, on the right side of the cabin, but this flight only turned out to be about half full, and I ended up with a free seat next to me (and a John Lithgow lookalike in 3D). The F50 has a 2-2 configuration, and the cabin was actually surprisingly fresh, as were the seats. The biggest disadvantage with this aircraft were the windows, as they were located too low to see through without crouching. My neck got a little stiff a short while into this flight...

Seat 5E, mine for this short flight to THN

As I was among the first to board, I managed to take one picture of the cabin without any people in it

As mentioned above, this was an Amapola leased aircraft, as BRA don't have any F50:s in their fleet

Leg room on this F50

Many of the passengers seemed like business men (and 80 % of the passengers in the departures hall were middle-aged white men with laptops and briefcases...) who were VIP:s in their own eyes. Some didn't pay any attention to the safety demonstration (and didn't remove their headphones), and another one bumped his briefcase on a fellow passenger's head, without apologising.

The captain informed us that there was going to be some turbulence during our ascent. Just like boarding, pushback was right on time, and we took off from runway 30, before making a turn to the southwest and our destination at Trollhättan. It was a little bumpy, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Heading out to runway 30

Here we go!

We have lift-off

Stockholm suburbs

Crouching to get a good look out the windows

20 minutes after departure, coffee and pastries were served. The pastry (a Swedish punsch-roll) was delicious, and the coffee was drinkable, albeit a tad weak. The flight was otherwise uneventful, and soon enough, we started our descent towards THN.

Coffee and punsch-roll

A few seconds to touchdown

Welcome to Trollhättan!

We landed on runway 33, and after a short taxi, we deplaned and walked to the terminal building. As we departed on time, we landed a few minutes ahead of schedule, and I now had around three hours before my flight back to Stockholm Bromma. There wasn't really enough time to head to Trollhättan, so instead I had plenty of time to check out the airport and its immediate surroundings. The airport (as expected) is tiny to say the least. Good thing I brought a book as well!