FeuilladeTravel: Airline review: Sprint Air Saab 340 economy class, Stockholm to Hemavan

First time on a Swedish aircraft - my review of Sprint Air Saab 340 economy class from Stockholm (ARN) to Hemavan (HMV)
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01. Trip report introduction
02. Sprint Air Saab 340 economy class, Stockholm to Hemavan
03. Photo Essay: Hiking in Lapland
04. Sprint Air Saab 340 economy class, Hemavan to Stockholm
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Stockholm (ARN) to Hemavan (HMV)

Date: 2018-07-30
Flight number: HP671
Aircraft: Saab 340
Registration: SP-KPR
Age of aircraft: 29 years
Duration of flight: 1:59 (gate to gate)
Seat: 10C (economy class)

Seat map with my seat (10C, or rather 10F) in red. Courtesy of Seatguru.com

Sprint Air don't exist on Seatguru, so the seat map above is from an old United Airlines Saab 340. We chose row 10, and sat together on the right side of the aisle. Seating was free on this flight, so not seats were assigned.

For this trip, my dad and I took the public transportation to Arlanda. First a commuter train, and then a bus for 15 minutes. This is the cheapest way to access ARN. It also means that you arrive curbside and get to see the terminal building from the outside as well, whereas the direct trains drop you off inside the airport, between terminals 4 and 5.

Terminal 3 is the smallest terminal, and it's only used by a couple of airlines using tiny aircraft on domestic routes. Most domestic routes depart from terminal 4, which is quite big and has gates with jet bridges. All gates at terminal 3 however are remote stands. Some within walking distance, and some that require a bus ride. It seems like the security staff weren't that used to the terminal either, as one of the security agents blurted out "What is this place? There's only like 30 people here!" as she came to join her colleagues by the X-ray as we were passing through.

Arlanda terminals 2 and 3

You'll have to look closely to find terminal 3...

There she is!

Walking down a long corridor to reach terminal 3

Check in opened a little over an hour before scheduled time of departure, and both check in and security was extremely fast here. There only seemed to be two flights departing from this terminal this morning, both of them Saab 340:s, seating 34 pax each. There wasn't anything to do airside however. The only thing located here apart from the gates and a couple of restrooms was a café that was closed down...

That's our flight!

And she's already standing at our "gate" - looks like it's going to be an on time departure

Despite the fact that the aircraft was already parked at our gate, boarding was delayed due to problems refuelling. Or problems... the gas truck was late and didn't show up until ten minutes before scheduled time of departure... Pushback was only nine minutes late though, and we took off another ten minutes later.

Getting ready to board!

Boarding a tiny turboprop feels almost like boarding a private jet (not that I know what that feels like)...

Excited to fly a new-to-me aircraft and airline!

She didn't look her age (29 years old) - the outside at least was spotless!

Not exactly state of the art seats, but the cabin was fresh enough as well, and the windows were large!

OK - the age of the aircraft is starting to show... Smoking hasn't been allowed on board for a long time...

We taxied to runway 19L, where there was a slight queue for take-off. Soon enough, we thundered down that runway too, and could make the almost 180° turn towards northern Sweden.

A Jetstream 32 from AIS airlines - we'll fly one of those in exactly one week!

The runway is soon ours, we're just waiting for an SAS A321 to take off, heading for Copenhagen

Our turn!

And since were flying north today, we have to turn this little bird around!

It was a fairly quick climb today, as the fasten seatbelt sign was switched off only nine minutes after take-off, and the snack cart was rolled out one minute later. But then, cruising altitude was only 20,000 ft, so we didn't have to climb so high.

Swedish aircraft, and a domestic route in Sweden, but the information is in Polish and English

Leg room was not that generous

Individual air nozzles

BC stands for "business class", right? ;)

The snack service consisted of a breakfast roll, a chocolate pastry, and something to drink (tea, coffee, water and orange juice was available). It was kind of tasty! The coffee was a little too much like instant coffee, but totally drinkable. I hadn't expected any snack service at all on this flight, so this was a pleasant surprise.

Chocolate pastry

Breakfast roll

Coffee and water

After a while, the captain made an announcement where he apologised to passengers who were supposed to have taken this flight the day before. Both the ARN-HMV and the HMV-ARN flights were cancelled the day before due to bad weather in Hemavan. So some people were rescheduled for this flight, which therefore actually was a full flight.

A full flight today (although some were supposed to have made the trip one day earlier)

Cruising

There was a thick layer of clouds during most of the flight, but as we got closer to Hemavan, we could see more of the landscape. The descent was quite bumpy though, and basically felt like a roller coaster.

Beautiful landscape in Lapland

There's actually some snow left on the highest peaks!

That's the tiny locality of Hemavan right there!

Probably the most scenic landing I've done in Sweden!

Almost there...

Welcome to Hemavan!

We touched down 18 minutes behind schedule, but deplaning and walking through the airport was quickly done, naturally. Now we had a few hours to grab some lunch and head out on the hiking trails!