Smoking in Santa Barbara's flights to Spain
 

Hey all,

I recently read an ad in one of Venezuela's most important newspaper featuring a DC-10 as a background. The ad said:

"Fly Santa Barbara to Madrid and Tenerife, we offer you the lowest prices in the market and also enjoy the smoking section in our widebody planes"

I believe 99% of today airlines ban smoking in their flights due to laws that restrict it, how come Santa Barbara is allow to offer an smoking area in their DC-10s? Are there any other airlines that allow smoking in their flights?

Thanks for your replies! :ok:

I am surprised to read this! Be prepared for an IFR experience :\

I flew in the mid-90's as a passenger in the People's Republic of China, a country where a good 50% of the population smokes. Flew on China Southern Airlines and Shangai Airlines-- imagine my surprise when I found that all flights were non-smoking!

Beyond smoking, how is their service? Do they have a good reputation within VE for their long-haul service?

I heard from a friend that flew CCS-MAD and back with them, and she told me that both flights were pretty good, nice F/As, open bar and good food despite she was in coach. When we talked about her flights I didn't know about the smoking section so I didn't ask and also she didn't mention it.

I plan on going to Europe on vacation sometime this year, I'll definitely choose Santa Barbara for two main reasons:

1-Lowest Fares
2-To support a national carrier

I rather fly Santa Barbara old DC10s than giving my money to Iberia, despite the fact that I would love to get the chance to fly on an A340. I might fly on Air Europa, but I doubt it, Venezuela's economy needs help and I'll do anything I can to support my own.
If I ever fly to Frankfurt, I'll be happy to fly lufthansa's A340s from Caracas.

Santa Barbara also flies seasonally to Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain (there's is a large spanish community living in Venezuela that came from La Coruña region many years ago)

Loads on flights to Spain are very high, Sta. barbara feeds pax from Lima and Quito to that flight too.

Just curious, are their DC-10s in a dual-configuration? I think some of them are ex-CO, I wonder if they kept the BusiessFirst config?

Thanks for the reply!

Yes they are configured in dual config. Business class and coach.
A round trip to Madrid from Caracas or any other venezuelan city served by Santa Barbara (connecting in CCS of course) costs $549 in coach and 959$ in business.

MD11 ????
 

Ive heard that SBACA is gonna change the old DC10 for some newer MD11's due to the restrictions of noise in europe................anybody knows something???
c ya:ok:

Santa Barbara getting MD-11s? No way.

They will keep flying their DC10s until god knows when. They can't afford a new type of equipment and also they don't have qualified mechanics to perform maintenance on MD-11s. Here in Venezuela mechanics only work on DC9s, DC10s and B732 ( only because the B732s have the same engines as the DC9s).

That's why the only jets operated by Venezuelan airlines are DC9s, DC10s and B737-200s.

About the noise regulations in Europe... I have no clue. I don't think they are gonna ban the DC10s, because if they do, Northwest and many cargo airlines will be affected. Maybe in 5-10 years we'll see a ban on older airliners, but not right now.

No B-727's in Venezuela?

Update
 

Luis, the plans R there, i got realy good contacts inside there, and thats the plans so far still as today...

on the other hand, the only 2 operators of the Old 727 are Aeropostal wich has a couple of YV super 27 from Pegasus and the other 2 the ones they operate to miami, regular 727-2OO, November reg.......and Santa Barbara has another super 27 flying south.

take care:}

Yes there are B727s in Venezuela, I forgot to mention them in my previous post.

As Anti-icing said, Aeropostal has a couple of YV registration B727-200s that are being phased out. Aeropostal is getting MD80s to replace them. The first MD80 from aeromexico arrived in Caracas in Dec 2003 and entered service in February 24th on the Caracas-Bogotá-Quito-Bogotá-Caracas route.

One more MD80 will arrive sometime this years and there is a rumour that aeromexico is throwing a B757 in the deal... let's see what happens, will be good to have a B757 in a Venezuelan airline.

The other Venezuelan airline that operates B727 is Santa Barbara. They fly it on the Caracas-Guayaquil-Lima-Guayaquil-Caracas route. That flight is scheduled for connections to/from Madrid.

Avensa 757
 

Avensa flew the 757, but as all the good things inside SVZM, they dont last too long, either is bad managment or poor country situation, or as I always say...BOTH ALL TIME.......:{
A year ago there where plans in S3 to take some 2 757 from pegasus to replace the 727 in the south american routes and to add the miami route, but..........., only plans hopes & dreams
& to give an update on the age of Airline planes over there, the youngest AC's are the ATR's of LAI + Barbara, plus the 19OO's & EMB of Avior...........thats it
the rest..........jurasickPark
c ya
:\

We also have a couple of new EMB-120s (avensa and avior) and according to embraer's website, Avior is still expecting delivery of a couple of more brand new EMB-120s. The rest of the venezuelan civil aviation aircraft are planes that should be grounded in the desert for good.

About Sta. Barbara going to Miami. Yes I read in a.net forums that they requested permission to the U.S. Deparment of Transportation to fly to Miami and Ft. Lauderdale from Caracas and Maracaibo, using wet-leased planes (prolly transmeridian?). We'll see what happens...