My Escapes Portugal Madeira Escape to Lush Green Madeira Flying Aboard and A330 From Funchal to Lisbon

Flying Aboard an A330 From Funchal to Lisbon

This was a memorable flight early in the morning from the Madeira Airport to Lisbon Portela. It was aboard a huge A330 jet.

Got prepared at 4:00 and entered my taxi at 4:30.
It was a peculiar taxi ride during the very early morning hours across Madeira. The palms looked so different in the dark...
...and the Moon's light was shining on the ocean's surface...

We crossed several tunnels. It was more bright in there than outside.
Into the light and then out, into the light and then out...

My flight was leaving after 6 o'clock, but close to 7 than 6. Of course, I arrived too early.

Except a few guards there was no-one at the airport. I felt weird. Early bird me!

The airport building was mepty. But at least they had WiFi, so I took my laptop out and started searching for Lisbon attractions, airport transfer details.

My battery almost totally died out by the time I had to get ready to approach my gate.

To my surprise: my plane was a huge jet, an Airbus A330-200 that came in late (more than half an a hour late) from Caracas, Venezuela!

Lots of Madeirans and mainland Portuguese live and work in Venezuela. Therefore the good connection.
Most people on the plane actually were arriving from Venezuela. We, the others - were the "left-overs" they picked up on the green island.

I was a bit anxious about how a huge plane like this can take off from such a small airport!
But we took off better than expected. First they powered up the engines, then we jetted-off from the runway like from an aircraft carrier and we took off abruptly.

Here's a shot below from the interior of the huge intercontinental Airbus. (By the way, the A330 can carry more than 400 passengers in certain configurations, but I was traveling with one that had just under 300 seats!).

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