Papeete Faa'a International Airport

We returned the rental car and settled down in the airport restaurant for a couple of minutes before it was time to head over to the small terminal 2, which was used by Air Moorea for the flights to Moorea among a few other islands.

International Airport

open air terminal for flights to Moorea

The terminal is small and one could describe it better as hut, than as terminal building. On the right side are the counters, where the check in is done. Not printed boarding passes were given, just a card which you return while boarding. The safety demonstration was done on screen in the open waiting area.

01 January 2010
PPT - MOZ
[Papeete - Moorea]
VT 1163 (Air Tahiti); De Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter (F-OIQP)
Gate n/a
16:30 – 16:40 [effective 16:30 – 16:40]
Economy Class
Seat 05 A (open seating)

We were able to get on a flight leaving half an hour earlier, since there were a few seats open. There are no pre-assigned seats, seating is open. And of course, there did not exist a frequent flier program at this airline.

Boarding started five minutes prior to the scheduled departure time and we walked to our waiting Twin Otter. Seating was 1 – 2. The plane was constructed for flying in lower altitude, since the cabin was not pressurized like on jets.

There was only one pilot in the plane and no flight attendant. The pilot welcomed us on board and started the engines and we rolled to the runway and took of towards Moorea. The flight time is only five minutes and you are not flying very high and therefore have good views to the sea, Papeete and Moorea. The flight was uneventful, beside the fact, that this was by far the smallest plane I have ever flown with and the shortest flight. We passed the airport and made a U-turn and approached the runway flowing over the Moorea golf course.

We disembarked and walked to the terminal while our luggage was brought soon later.

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