We flew to Malta from Manchester with astraeus airlines in April 2005. The check in was using a ticketless system which was all new to us, infact we were a little apprehensive that we had been conned. Checkin was slightly quicker than having tickets, and it all went smoothly. We got on the plane and it appeared a little shabby/old but ok. The staff didn't have a smile between them, and were quite rude at times. There was no entertainment on the plane but thats quite common for a short flight. The plane had quite a worrying vibration/rattle throughout the flight which really didn't help me relax, otherwise the flight was smooth. We normally fly with Air malta who provide a magazine all about malta, a daily paper and drinks before the meal are complimentary. With Astreus there was nothing to read to take my mind off the rattle and we had to pay for our drinks. We landed fine after an argument with a flight attendant about waking up my 3 year old sleeping daughter to land (it was about 1 am), she had her seatbelt on and was perfectly safe. But she insisted on making a very big deal out of it. The return flight : Well the flight was delayed by about 4 hours which didn't go down very well to start with the original flight should have been at about 2 am, so from about midnight onwards we were sat in the airport. The reason we were given for the delay was that the crew had used all thier flying time so had to have a break. Eventually we boarded the plane to the same miserable staff, who still didn't break a smile, we were sat over looking the wing, immediately behind us was the emergency exit which the flight attendant came and explained to us and the people behind how it worked and how to open it in great detail which i've never experienced before, and definately got me worried, once the plane took off the rattle was still there and worse if anything. I worried the whole flight, especially when we hit turbulence. I really thought that this was the last flight of my life. It certainly was my last flight with Astreus, I wont be using them again.
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Good review. Never flown with these. And ohh, you flew from Manchester...same as me. Where are you from then? Alastair :o) x
torr 24.03.2006 13:36
My only experience with them was much more satisfactory than this, I have to say. They do charge for drinks - being a no-frills, predominantly charter carrier - but we had better leg-room than on most scheduled services, and the staff we fine. I guess all airlines have their ups and downs! Duncan
Katieshaz 23.03.2006 18:19
I can appreciate your concerns, are you a nervous flyer?
Cabin crew are there for your safety. They insist on all passengers being awake for landing as statisically, accidents are more likely to happen during take off and landing. Most airlines give passengers sat by an exit an emergency briefing in case they are killed in a crash or injured, then at least the able bodied passengers can open the exits and maybe save some lives.
I can't really blame them being a bit grumpy, they have to put up with a lot of rude passengers and some airlines do not pay that well.
Flying is the safest form of travel. The EU would not allow any unsafe airlines to operate into the UK anyway!
Next flight, try talking to the crew, they will re-assure you and provide explanations for the noise etc
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Mar 22nd, 2006
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