Avis du vol entre Bissau et Lisbon en classe Economique avec TAP Air Portugal

I went to a two-week trip to Angola, São Tome and Principe, Gabon, Côte d'Ivoire and Bissau Guinea. I took 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

This two-week African trip came to an end. There are not many ways to get from Bissau to anywhere else. TAP flies direct to Lisbon three times a week with a block time of 4 hours 10 minutes. Other options include RAM Moroccan Airlines three times a week to Casablanca and twice a week to Praia, and a once weekly Euroatlantic flight to Lisbon. Flights within Africa are only with ASKY to Dakar, three times a week.

TAP flies to/from Bissau using narrowbody aircrafts. I couldn't find any reliable information about TAP's business class at the time of booking. Does it have Eurobusiness or business class with proper seats? I decided not to pay the huge extra cost for business (typical one-way fares with TAP frm Bissau to Lisbon are € 343 in economy and € 1600 in business). Anyway, as a Star Alliance gold member, I have priority check-in, lounge access and priority boarding. I didn't know that none of them are available at Bissau Airport.

The airport from the outside. A shiny new terminal is being built next to it.

The check-in area. The photo doesn't show what it really looked like: fully chaotic, no information and frequent power breaks. The airport was built in 1955 and has not been renovated since.

After waiting for about 15 minutes due to a power cut I was checked in fairly quickly. On-line check-in couldn't be completed but at least I could book the seat of my choice, 7C. I was offered an upgrade for € 480 but I didn't go for it.

Next stop was a scale for cabin luggage. The employee working there was arguing with all passengers (and vica versa), so some passengers just walked through without weighing their luggage, and some others put their luggage on it, then quickly walked through while the employee was arguing with somebody else.

Next stop was passport control - quick and friendly.

Then a person with a badge but without a uniform, standing one meter from the passport control booth, checked if the passports had been stamped.

Next stop was security check. The staff was friendly.

Then I had two hours in the waiting room before departure (the flight was one hour late). Unfortunately, there was no lounge. However, there was a small cafe that sold water (500 CFA), soft drinks (1000 CFA) and beer (1000 to 2000 CFA). The waiting room:

There's is small souvenir shop:

The café:

My "lounge":

I moved to another seat later. It suddenly broke under me after a half an hour or so.

Despite the conditions described above, most passengers were in a good mood. A lot of people, especially the Portuguese living in Bissau and going back to Portugal for Christmas, knew each other.

People were smoking in the toilets, so I prefered not to use them.

The inbound plane arrived at 20:47.

At 20:58, all passengers got up from their seats and rushed to queue, and boarding started soon after, although there were no signs or announcements.

We were queuing outside for some time. There was this Mercedes car on the left that took VIP guests from and to the plane.

The jetbridges of the new terminal are ready.

Then the passengers in the queue swarmed the paxbus. It was a former city bus. Only two of the fourteen interior lights were working, and the doors could not be closed. We were then standing in the crowded bus for quite some time, although some people randomly decided to walk to the plane through the appron on their own.

The bus got to the plane after a two-minute ride, then people rushed off like there were less seats on the plane than passengers. 

The plane for this flight was CS-TJR with a retro livery, built in 2020.

Two Portuguese policemen without a uniform but with a badge checked the documents at the door inside the aircraft.

The cabin crew was remarkably good spirited despite the difficult boarding conditions. The flight was completely full, and space for hand luggage was at a premium.

Business class was Eurobusiness with two rows of regular economy seats. Imagine paying € 1253 extra for business class for a four hour flight with no priority services or lounge at the airport, a regular economy seat, with the only benefits being not having a neighbour and getting a better meal.

I booked seat 7C, a premium seat with a little extra legroom.

The seat next to mine (7B) was taken by an oversized mother with her infant.

We started to taxi at 22.41 for a scheduled departure time of 20.35. We took off at 22.44.

Meal service started 45 minutes after take-off.

There was a good choice of drinks.

Dinner was OK for an economy class meal. There were no options.

I fell asleep at about midnight. Fortunately, the baby next to me was sleeping, and his mother tried to minimise disturbances. I was woken up by turbulence at 02.00, approximately 40 minutes before landing.

We landed in Lisbon at 02.35 and were at the gate at 02.40 for a scheduled arrival time of 00.45.

I got to my hotel room at Melia Lisbon Airport at 03.30 and had to wake up at 05.00 for my connecting flight.