On my recent work trip to Tunisia, I flew from Heathrow airport and with the airline Tunisair. Now before this trip I had never flown before with this airline and will even admit that I'd not really even heard much, if anything about them. This is mainly due to the fact that I have never been asked for that airline and the compnay I work for at the moment doesn't have a contract to sell them as part of our packages. So with this in mind I was quite intrigued as to what they would be like and unsure as to what kind of service they would provide.
The airline: The airline itself is the national airline of Tunisia, really the clue is in the name! The airlines colour is white with a motif of an animal that looks like a goat or deer and this is in red. The aircraft was actually set up in 1948 by an agreement with Air France and in 1949 it began operation. The airlines 2 letter code is TU. The aircraft that I travelled on was a Boeing 737-600 and the aircraft had a business class section at the front and also a economy section which was in a confirguration of 3 seats on either side of the aisle. The seats were the main thing that I noticed once I sat down as first of all the leg room was very good and was equal to that of some of the more well known scheduled airlines. The pitch of the seat was at a very good 34 inches. The second thing was that each seat had it's own TV. Now this isn't out of the ordinary for most scheduled airlines to have these nowadays but what made such an impression was that the TV's were actually on demand in the sense that you could choose to play games, watch films, listen to music or just generally follow your route on the route map. Even my flight earlier on in the year with a much bigger and well known airline hadn't had the full on demand service - this was impressive! The airline operate out of Heathrow in the UK but, do have other european bases they fly to including france and Italy. The main hub for the ailine in Tunisia is Carthage International airport in Tunis.
The staff: The cabin crew were really good both ways - there was a good mix of men and women on both flights and most of the staff spoke Arabic, French and English - a good mix but as the main language of Tunisia is Arabic closely followed by French most Tunisians do speak these two languages anyway! The crew were good at gettting food served and were helpful when asked anything during the flight. The uniform for the staff is navy blue with white shirts and the woman I noticed, were wearing trousers. Maybe this is just standard but I didn't notice any of them wearing a skirt.
The flight: The flight to Tunisia from Heathrow toook just over 2 hours and 30 minutes so not very long at all really which makes it an easy flight. The flight was smooth in both directions and the adequate seating did make this even more enjoyable. I would even like to comment on how comfortable I thought the seats were as it really was an excellent aircraft for how enjoyable the journey was in regards to the seats - I only say this because after flying with quite a few airlines that are meant to be the best of them around, it really is a nice change to have a relatively small and not as well known airline provide what the big boys should be! The flight left a little late from Heathrow but, as soon as the gate opened the staff were quick at boarding and it didn't take very long to get going at all. The same can be said on the return as the aircraft was boarded pretty swiftly and was soon taking off.
Food and drink: Now my big thing with any flight is the food - I absolutly love aeroplane food - yes you may not think it's the best and it's hardly the most practical way to eat a meal with elbows from the random passenger next to you digging into you and the tiny little cups of tea and coffee but there is something about eating on a plane that I love! So I always look forward to my meal and I don't think I was expecting it to be as nice as it was. On the both flights we had a hot meal that included two bread rolls and a desert. Now I didn't eat my desert as the flavour wasn't to my liking but the main meal was a kind of beef stew with vegetables and I really enjoyed it - it was tasty and filling. Now on the way back I was served a meal of fish and as I don't really like fish I wasn't too keen - in fact this was the first time I've been given a meal that I didn't truly appreciate as I even gave my desert to my friend who enjoyed it immensely but, even so I could see it was another filling and adequate meal. Tea and coffee were served in good time and all in all I thought the food was a good thing from this airline and give them a thumbs up! Also all drink is included in the price including alcoholic drinks so overall it is not a bad service at all.
Any negatives? Well overall the flight was pretty good but the only niggle which was such a shame was the on demand TV's after getting so excited by them when we first boarded didn't actually work very well! The games froze and we had to ask the stewardess to re set them which to her credit she did instantly for us. However it just didn't like it and wouldn't play for us! The films would but the sound was not very good - I do believe however that these are only just being introduced as the return flight didn't have them all so once (hopefully) they sort that I would give Tunisair a really good approval for their entertainment system.
Overall opinion: I thought that overall this was an excellent little airline - the staff were great in both directions and the food fabulous. The airline do serve duty free too and have quite a good range at the usual kind of prices - I never buy duty free so cannot really say much more than that! However the airline is still relatively unknown as a first choice to Tunisia as a lot of people travelling to this country will fly with a charter airline on a package holiday - however I would say that if you come across a chance to use them please do as I was pleasantly surprised by them and think most others would be too. Prices start at around the £200 mark not including tax for a return fare.
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Class flown most frequently
Economy
How often do you travel with this airline
First time
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Other
Safety
Good
How well does it cater for disabled people
Don't know
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