Review of Volotea flight from Figari Sud-Corse to Rodez in Economy

Introduction

Hello and welcome to the second and final review in this short series of domestic French flight reviews and the last on Volotea for this year. 

As mentioned in previous reviews, Volotea had recently established a small base in my hometown in the southwest of France, so we took advantage of spending the summer in France to try out another new Volotea route. After a weekend in Paris in July, we headed to Corsica for a week's holiday in August.

After a wonderful week in Southern Corsica, it was time to head back. There's a short tourism bonus at the end of this review. 

Routing

Flights in this series:

Check-in & Boarding

We dropped the rental car off a little more than an hour prior to boarding time. It's a quick walk across the way to the terminal. 

Judging by the arrivals board on entering the terminal, this little airport is very busy at the height of the summer travel season. 

The terminal is pleasant, modern, and light-filled. 

Volotea seem to have the biggest operation of any airline at FSC with the exception of the hometown airline, Air Corsica. 

Very long queues at the check-in counters. Luckily we'd checked in on the app and only had cabin baggage so no need to queue up for the counters. Much like Ryanair, Volotea charge a fee for checking in at the airport, so it's best to get boarding passes online or through the Volotea app. 

The Volotea flight to Rodez would be operating from what looked like a temporary annex to the terminal reached by exiting the main terminal and walking past the cafe/restaurant to gates B1/B2 in a separate building. 

Gates B1/B2 have a separate security checkpoint as it's not connected to the main terminal. It really looked like it used to be offices or a warehouse but was converted to a boarding lounge with the need for more capacity during high season. The security checkpoint was not yet open when we arrived, so we had to wait in the café area–there are no airline lounges at tiny Figari airport. 

The inbound flight was running a few minutes late which would delay our flight by a few minutes, no big deal. 

I find the Volotea app to be well-designed and easy to use, with fun Aviation Geek information 

Once the opening of the security checkpoint was announced about an hour prior to departure, there was a sudden rush to queue up. 

Like many small airports in France, you still have to take approved liquids and larger electronics out of carry-on bags for inspection, which slows down the screening process. Despite only having about 20 passengers in the queue ahead of us, it took a good 15-20 minutes to get through security. 

Yeah, it definitely looks like this used to be a warehouse. 

Boarding began about a half-hour before scheduled departure time, but it was a Ryanair type of boarding–i.e. just scanning boarding passes to go from the main boarding lounge to another waiting area near the door. General boarding on the right and Priority Boarding on the left, to a separate space. 

The aircraft hadn't even landed yet, so we were in no rush to get through, especially as we had priority boarding thanks to our Megavolotea membership status. 

There was really no point to going through early into the other waiting area. Once actual boarding was called we still ended up being among the first in the queue. 

Priority Boarding would use a different door to exit to the tarmac on the left than general boarding on the right. 

Our A319 looked nice with the beautiful Corsican mountains in the background. I like the livery as it reminds me of Bonne Maman jam jars. 

We were held for a few minutes outside as the cabin was readied. 

This type of ramp is ideal for tarmac boarding as it allows for easy boarding of passengers with wheelchairs, unlike regular air-stairs. 

Which such beautiful landscapes and good weather, you don't mind boarding from the tarmac. 

Cleared to board!

EC-MTD, a 20-year-old A319, was based in RDZ at the time–aircraft rotate in and out of RDZ through the Volotea system about every 4 months or so. 

Despite the age of the frame, the interior looks fresh and modern as it's well-maintained with slimline Accro seats from 2018. 

The colourful headrest covers add a fun touch of colour and brightness. 

We were warmly greeted by the cabin crew, most of which we recognised as we'd flown with them on previous flights. 

Despite the high-density Y156 configuration and the 29 inch seat pitch that comes with that, the leg space is surprisingly good thanks to good design of this Accro seat model. 

At 5'10" (1.78m), 29" pitch would normally be knee-crushing, but there's a good amount of room carved out around the knees. 

I could even cross my legs, which again is crazy for 29" seat pitch. 

In each seatback there's a QR code that leads to the buy-on-board menu, from which it's also possible to navigate to the streaming in-flight entertainment portal. 

There's no seatback pocket to save space, but this netting can hold larger items. In a way, this netting ensure you don't forget any items as everything can be plainly seen 🤣

The Flight

Thanks to boarding through both the forward and rear doors, boarding wrapped up quickly and we were on our way, minimising the delay.

Taxi time was very short as there were no other aircraft ahead of us for the single runway. 

Like Rodez, there's only one runway and no taxiway so the aircraft has to taxi to the end of the runway and turn around for take-off. 

Off we go for the one hour crossing back to the mainland with some final views of this beautiful island. 

The streaming IFE to personal devices is available from gate-to-gate. It's most easily reached by going to play.volotea.com in a web browser after connecting to the VOLOTEA Wi-Fi signal. Not that there is no actual internet access, but rather it's a local network for playing the IFE content. 

Flight information, entertainment content, destination info, the in-flight magazine, and buy-on-board menu can all be accessed through the IFE portal. 

There's a decent flight map on the IFE system that even has a 3D view. 

The in-flight magazine "Volare" has some decent travel articles.

Oh, this looks familiar! Sad to leave this paradise!

There's a surprisingly decent selection of content including movies, TV series, documentaries, news, music, reading materials, and children's programming. Impressive for a low-cost carrier, especially considering that most flights within Europe are short and that even most full-service European carriers don't offer any sort of in-flight entertainment on short-haul flights. 

The in-flight service began about 20 minutes into the flight. As usual, I'd pre-ordered a meal combo as it saves a few Euros compared to buying on board and also guarantees you'll get a meal as it's not unusual for stock to run out on a flight for those who don't pre-order. 

I went for the Tapas box, which is a decent option if you want something lighter rather than a hot meal. 

Mmm I love fuet. 

For my son, we got the butter chicken, which we'd liked on previous flights.

The flight went by quickly and we began the descent near Millau, with some luck I'll see the famous Viaduc de Millau.

Yup, there it is…not a great angle, but still cool to see it from above. From up here the Viaduc de Millau looks small, but at 343m (1125 ft) tall, it's the tallest bridge in the world, spanning over 2km long over the Tarn river gorge between two mountains. 

More familiar sights as we overfly Pareloup lake, a nice place to cool off with some water activities in the summer. 

Looks like our route will take us right over the centre of Rodez once again. 

The Aveyron river winding through Rodez and Le Monastère. I can see my parents' house, which is cool. 

Wow, we really did fly right over the city centre. On such a clear day there were some great views–this was the first time I'd ever seen my hometown from this perspective. 

A cool perspective of the Gothic cathedral Notre Dame de Rodez. 

We'd made up some of the delay of the inbound flight, landing close to on-time. 

In the end, we were only 15 minutes behind schedule. 

Bye Volotea, see you next year!

Oh look, here comes a Ryanair 738! Seeing two mainline aircraft on the ground at the same time at my tiny hometown airport made my AvGeek heart happy. 

On a practical note, I just really enjoy flying in and out of RDZ because it's so quick and convenient. You just walk off the aircraft and are in your car less than two minutes later–if you don't have any checked bags anyway.