Review of Tsaradia flight from Analanjirofo to Antananarivo in Economy

Intro

Welcome everybody to this flight report!

This time I was on holiday on the beautiful island of Madagascar, and more specifically Ile St. Marie. To reach this little paradise there is only two options available, flying or a combination of taxi-brousse and ferry. The latter being cheap, but taking a lot of time and is uncomfortable (520km, 17+ hours, squeezed like sardines). The former being quick, but costing over 120 euros one-way. We decided to fly back in the end after having enjoyed a week of lemurs and whales on the pretty Ile aux Nattes!

Tsaradia is the local subsidiary of Air Madagascar, but now they're trying to merge the two together into Madagascar Airlines. They're not very well known for their reliability. The airline is better know as Air Mad, or as the locals prefer to call them: Air Maybe. Two days before departure we were nicely informed that our flight would depart 1 hour earlier than scheduled. 
 

SMS AIRPORT

Coming from Ile aux Nattes, we were dropped by boat at the Southern tip of Ile St. Marie, which is just a short walk away from the airport.

And made our way to the airport…..

Entering the airport premises! As you can see the tuktuk is the preferred means of transport here, all waiting to pick-up passengers from the inbound flight.

We were 2 hours in advance at check-in and were one of the first ones there. Labels for the luggage are still written manually here, which I can highly appreciate! After all, it would be tough to send it to the wrong destination given the traffic at this airport……

PRE-FLIGHT

After check-in, we went outside to have a World Cola on the beach. Can I hereby introduce you to the new Maho beach!

After landing of our ATR, we went back to the airport and breezed through security. The waiting area resembled a bit of a bus terminal, but was very comfortable for Malagasy standards.

Below our beautiful Tsaradia ATR72, of which they have 4! I was flying on 5R-MJF which is 21 years old and currently shows as stored. 

Inside it was scorching hot and we quickly made our way to our bright red leather seats! For your information, I'm 190cm therefore I had a bit of trouble with legroom. Interestingly the safety instructions were also available in Chinese, next to French, English and Malagasy. 

FLIGHT

We had a beautiful take-off, and were even able to spot some whales from the air!

Service quickly began on this 1 hour hop to Antanarivo! The cheese sandwich and a drink are included, the zebu (=local cow) bagel I pre-ordered online for 3 euros. All-in-all pretty good and nice crew!

We quickly approached TNR airport with the landscape having changed dramatically!

ARRIVAL TNR

The domestic terminal used to be the old international terminal, which fortunately has been replaced. After a quick walk we quickly picked-up our luggage and continued our way to the city center. We were fortunate enough that we had a private taxi and that we didn't have to use the shared taxi's that they stuff from the back….

If looking for a place to stay, I highly recommend the Sakamanga hotel and the bakery next to it for breakfast!