Review of Sky Airline flight from Santiago to Antofagasta in Economy

Going to the driest place on hearth

During our 4 months trip in Latin America, we went to a lot of places in Argentina, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuator and Colombia.

Way out:
London - Paris CDG: Air France A320 report here
Paris CDG - Buenos Aires EZE: Air France Boeing 777-200 report here

Argentina
Iguazu - Buenos Aires AEP: Latam A320 report here
Buenos Aires AEP - Salta: Latam A320 report here
Salta - Cordoba: Aerolineas Argentinas B737-800 report here
Cordoba - Mendoza: Aerolineas Argentinas (Austral) E190 report here

Chile
Santiago - Antofagasta: Sky Airlines A320 report here

Peru
Lima - Iquitos: Viva Air A320 report here
Iquitos - Lima: Viva Air A320  report here 
Nazca flights: Touristic bonus Report Here
 
Colombia
Medellin - San Andres: Latam A320 report here
San Andres - Cartagena: Latam A320 report here
Santa Marta - Bogota: Latam A320 report here 

Way back
Bogota - Paris CDG: Air France B787-9 report here
Paris CDG - Londres Heathrow: Air France A318 report here

One of the places that really impressed us is the desert of Atacama, where San Pedro is located. To go there, you can land in Antofagasta or Calama. Although the first is a bit further, we chose this option to really enjoy the drive. 

We booked with Sky Airlines because Latam was really expensive on this segment and also that brought some variety for my fellow FR readers!

No miles were earned for this journey since Sky isn't part of any major alliance.

Just like many low cost airlines, (free) check in needs to happen online, and we need to print the boarding pass ourselves if we don't want to be charged at the airport - which is what we did!

at santiago - asturo merino benitez airport

We arrived at the airport a good 2 hours before, our hotel in Santiago wasn't very keen to keep our luggage any longer than lunch time. 

I was pleasantly surprised - the airport has an interesting design, very clean and a lot of facilities. Check in counters are HUGE. 
And despite their size, it took for ever to check our luggage in.. 

We then passed through security very quickly.

As we had loods of time I went for a walk around the airprort.  I think Latam livery is really zell designed for dreamliners.

Another dreamliner and an A320 of Sky…

on board the a319

Boarding happened by "zones" of the aircraft, the rear passengers boarding first. 

Rare thing: the plane was at a gate with a jetway! 

This must be an area for low costs carriers as JetSmart was next to us..

Aircraft: Airbus A319-111
Registration: CC-AHE
Engines: 2x CFM56
Age: 14 years old - First served 14 years for EasyJet
Layout: 158
Observation: Sky Airlines is a low-cost airline operating in Chili, offering domestic flights and to direct neighbouring countries. It competes as such with national giant Latam, but has only a fleet of 20 A320 aircrafts. 

The crew seemed nice and professionnal. They spoke both english and spanish, and welcomed us aboard.

We had the regular announce made by the captain. 

We taxied up until the edge of runway 17R aligned…

and took off from there!

passing 10,000 feet.

and over the Andese mountains that you can see from the distance

The cabin is actually good for a low cost carrier, although the pitch is a bit small but not shockingly smaller than on Latam.

There wasn't any inflight magazine, just the By On Board food menu.

After almost 2 hours we started our descent… I was walking in the cabin to stretch a bit my legs and took advantage of some free seats on the opposite side of the cabin to take this picture of the desert..

At antofagasta - cerro moreno airport

We landed safely despite a bumpy approach.

Not convinced you should go and visit this region?

Some spectacular views at 5000m high!

And for the stamp collection!