I went to a two-week trip to Angola, São Tome and Principe, Gabon, Côte d'Ivoire and Bissau Guinea. The plan was to take the following flights:
Keflavík to Lisbon, Icelandair
Lisbon to Luanda, TAAG
Luanda to São Tomé, TAAG
São Tomé to Principe, STP Airways
Principe to São Tomé, STP Airways
São Tome to Libreville, ASKY
Libreville to Cotonou to Abidjan, Air Côte d’Ivoire
Abidjan to Lomé, ASKY
Lomé to Dakar to Bissau, ASKY
Bissau to Lisbon, TAP
The country of São Tomé and Principe is made up of, as its name suggests, two islands: São Tomé and Principe. The larger island of Säo Tomé has an area of 854 km² and a population of about 218,000, while Principe has only 142 km² and 9,000. The distance between the two is around 150 km. Two airlines fly between the islands, STP Airways twice on most days using a 19 seater Jetstream 32, and the Gabonese AfriJet once on some days using an ATR72.
Säo Tomé Airport is a very modest building.
Check-in was slow, even if there were not many passengers.
The waiting room is simple.
Boarding started a few minutes before 9.00. We just walked to this beautiful plane, leased by STP Airways from Sevenair.
This Jetstream 32, registration number CS-DVQ belongs to Sevenair Portugal and was built in 1989.
The cabin has a 1+2 configuration with seven rows of solo seat on the left and six rows of pair of seats on the right with a total of 19 seats.
I had an aisle seat.
The co-pilot had a safety explanation in Portuguese and English. We started to roll at 09.08.
The cockpit during taxi:
We took off at 09.11.
We were flying at a speed of 140 knots at an altitude of 9,000 feet.
There was of course no service during the flight, and as we were flying above the Atlantic Ocean, not much to see.
Runway in view.
We landed in Principe at 09.41 and engines were shut at 09.43 for a scheduled arrival time of 09.40.
Principe Airport:
The area across the street from the airport.
There's this strange wreck outside of the airport:
Principe is a small island of mostly untouched nature.
My accommodation was at the beautiful Roça Sundy.
Santo Antonio, the only town on Principe.
There are some idyllic beaches.
A typical road on Principe.
Local street art.
