Tonight will be an exciting night for a few reasons, 1st I get to fly, 2nd I’m flying a new airline, 3rd I’m also flying a new aircraft type and last of all I’m going to a new city so that marks another pin on my world map of places I’ve been to! 😁 where am I headed exactly? I’m on my way to Recife, Brazil 🇧🇷 another city on the Atlantic coastline which doesn’t see as much hype or even tourism as Rio de Janeiro. I looked it up online and saw that it was kind of a mix between Rio and Miami 🏝️😎 which was pretty cool and since I enjoy my times while staying in both cities, I felt like giving Recife a visit as well! Now MIA lacks nonstop flights to Recife but nearby Fort Lauderdale 🏝️🛥️ does have a once weekly flight going there every Wednesday on Azul airlines which will be our departure airport and airline choice for this trip and luckily the storm as calmed down so there was NO delay in getting to the airport from my home and soon enough we have arrived at FLLs terminal 3 where the Azul check in is along with JetBlue, American, Avelo, Bermud Air, EL AL, Flair and Sun Country. Despite checking in in terminal 3, our flight leaves out of terminal 4 but that’s no big deal since the 2 are connected airside so no need to re go through security again and speaking of security. It was a breeze due to once again TSA pre check 😝 now terminal 3 reminds me of the central terminal over at MIA but not in a good way, it feels very claustrophobic and overcrowded. Terminal 4 was a bit crowded but at least it isn’t as claustrophobic having high ceilings reminding me of concourse D at MIA. I grabbed a few snacks and a light dinner from Burger King 🍔👑 before heading off to our gate hosting the flight to Recife!
FLIGHT INFO
Origin: Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Intl 🇺🇸 (KFLL)
Destination: Recife Gaurarapes Intl 🇧🇷 (SBRF)
Flight Time: 7:13
Airbus A330-900neo (Azul)
Server: Expert
Waiting for us at gate G14 is PR-ANB a 5 year old Airbus A330-900neo delivered to Azul in June 2019. This will be my first time on an A339 and I’m really excited I was never the biggest fan of the A330ceos but the neos do look really cool and I’m really glad to finally put them to the test. On another note, I was looking at the logo on the tail and noticed it was a nice layout of Brazil 🇧🇷 with all the states being a separate color which I found extremely creative but now that boarding has begun, it’s time to get on this bird for the first time!
Azuls A339s have 298 seats on them, 42 in business class in a 1-2-1 configuration and 264 in economy class in a 2-4-2 configuration. For the business class cabin Azul went with the Recaro CL6710 seats and their CL3710s for the economy cabin. Rows 10-21 are designated as “Economy Xtra” providing extra legroom. My seat will be the second to last seat in the first section of economy 25K. Waiting on the seat for me already is a blanket, pillow and water bottle the basics you’d want on a red eye flight, the seat also does have an IFE screen more on that later and enough power outlets and USB ports to keep your devices charged up. And I got to say, this is one nice wing although I don’t personally like it as much as its main competitor the Boeing 787 but it’s still a good wing but the wingtips are INCREDIBLE and love the little Brazilian flag on them well done Azul. 👏 we did pushback a bit late but our arrival into Recife wouldn’t be impacted by this so let’s just make our way to FLLs runway 10R for take off!
It wasn’t an instant departure but we still didn’t take long enough after lining up to spool up our engines and become airborne but now we leave Fort Lauderdale 🏝️🛥️ behind us and look into the future, to Recife!
We were soon at our cruising altitude for tonight’s flight which will be FL370, the crew once again wasted no time getting dinner served since lots of us wanted to sleep, it soon arrived to which I ordered the Mac and Cheese with cut up vegetables, cheesecake, and a bread roll with butter and a choice of beverage which I went with a Coke. No water bottle was provided with the meal strangely but despite that it was still a tasty and sufficient enough meal for this flight and I never knew you could perfect Mac and Cheese high in the sky but Azul proves that it is possible. And the crew seemed pretty happy working this flight I even talked to one and she really enjoys working this flight especially since she can relax and look at the ocean during her layovers at FLL and REC so 5 stars for the service tonight! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ like I always do after meal services, I fell asleep so see you soon I guess.
Like always as well, I was woken up once again by galley noises which means 2 things one is that I shouldn’t book seats close to them especially if I plan to sleep but more importantly, it means it’s time for breakfast! Which came in a box which contained a muffin, crackers with cheese and a blueberry yogurt along with a beverage of choice which I went with apple juice 🧃 it was a bit underwhelming but I didn’t really expect much since breakfast is usually a poor offering on airlines apart from a few exceptions so I’d say it passed the test. 🤷♂️ As for the IFE, the Panasonic eX3 system is used and it provides a lot of great choices not as many as you will find on North American carriers and even the middle eastern ones but still plentiful since Azul’s flights aren’t nearly as long as the ones those airlines offer.
But soon enough it was time begin the descent into Recife and so far I generally liked Azul a lot especially the name but why is it called Azul? Well Azul is Spanish and Portuguese for the color blue and who founded Azul? David Neeleman what other airlines did he found? JetBlue and Breeze! Which both have their fare share of love for the color blue. This is nothing significant about the flight but I just thought it would be cool to say.
Soon enough we were on final for RECs RWY 18 and unfortunately I didn’t get to see the coast since I was on the right side so I pretty much got a bad introduction to the city but it was my fault but lets just sit back, relax and enjoy this landing!
Eventually we landed on RWY 18 and I’d like to welcome everybody to Recife, Brazil 🇧🇷 and I really enjoyed Azul Airlines. The seats were great, the IFE was good, meals were great, crew were friendly like there really isn’t much to ask for maybe more destinations since as far as the US 🇺🇸 goes they only fly to Fort Lauderdale 🏝️🛥️ and Orlando 🐭🏰 but there is room for more and these A330-900neos can go far enough to reach places like New York City 🗽🍎 Los Angeles 🌴📸 and many others. Azul is a great airline they just need to grow.
As a @NonStopsAviation tradition, I always pay a visit the flight deck after flying a new aircraft type and this is pretty much every Airbus cockpit nothing to significant to put it apart from the A320 family maybe there is something, I just don’t see it.
I was the last passenger to deplane due to my flight deck visit and was at the very end of the passport control 🛂 line but do you want to know something?
Our flight was the ONLY one here so that means it went by really fast I’m talking like 10 minutes from arriving into the facility and finally legally in the country of Brazil 🇧🇷 our bags also didn’t take too long as I was soon off to the rental car facility to grab the car I’ll be using during my stay here in Recife before going to explore. That’s all for my flight on Azul Airlines from Fort Lauderdale 🏝️🛥️ to Recife, Brazil 🇧🇷 stay tuned for the return flight home which surprise surprise,
I’ll be doing in BUSINESS CLASS!
So I finally get to review a premium product for once and as always between now and the next time, see you in the sky! 😉👋