Review: Air Tahiti (Tahiti – Bora Bora)

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Air Tahiti and Air Tahiti Nui are two completely separate airlines. The fact that they have such similar names doesn’t help to distinguish them from one another but the similarities end right there, at the names. While Air Tahiti Nui is an international airline and the one we used to fly from Los Angeles to Tahiti, Air Tahiti is an inter-island operation within French Polynesia.

Arrival & Transfer To Air Tahiti

Fa’a’ā International Airport (PPT) is the main airport on Tahiti and is where our Air Tahiti Nui flight from Los Angeles landed.

There are no jet-bridges at the airport so we were met at the aircraft door by a set of stairs and, once we were on the tarmac, we were directed towards the immigration area of the main terminal building.

The Air Tahiti Nui A340 that flew us over from Los Angeles

As Tahiti is part of French Polynesia there were two lines in the immigration area – one for European Union passport holders and one for holders of all other passports. As an Air France aircraft had arrived shortly before us both lines were already pretty long so I was expecting a long wait before we got to baggage claim..but that wasn’t really the case.

Both lines moved at a pretty decent speed and within 20 minutes we were standing around a rather congested baggage carousel waiting for our bags (the airport is undergoing refurbishment work so a lot of it was boarded up).

No more than 15 minutes after that we had our bags and we were walking through the customs area and into the main arrivals hall of the airport. For an airport where I assumed “Island Time” would rule supreme this was surprisingly efficient.

As there is no link between Air Tahiti Nui and Air Tahiti we had to head on over to the Air Tahiti desks (5 minute walk from the international arrivals area) to check-in for our flight to Bora Bora. There was only one couple ahead of us in line so, within 10 minutes, we were checked in and passing through a very simple-looking security checkpoint.

Domestic Departure Area Fa’a’ā International Airport

It would be fair to say that the airside part of the domestic departures section of the airport is a little bit basic.

There is a small coffee shop with some tables and chairs…..

….a few rows of seats here and there….

…and the gates:

I had done a little bit of online research about this part of our trip so there were three things I knew that would come in useful:

1. We would be walked out to our aircraft
2. Boarding for Air Tahiti is done on a first come, first served basis – there is no allocated seating
3. The left hand side of the aircraft generally gets the good views of Bora Bora

As I was very keen for Joanna to have a great view from the aircraft (she would be having the window seat) I made sure we sat close to the gates so that we’d be one of the first to board and therefore, hopefully, have our choice of seats.

About 5 minutes before scheduled boarding time the flight was called and, after the children solo-flyers were taken care of, we were on our way out to the aircraft – an ATR-72-600.

Air Tahiti – ATR 72

Air Tahiti Review – ATR-72

The aircraft is boarded via the rear and the cabin is set out in a 2-2 layout.

Air Tahiti Review – ATR-72 Cabin

The first thing I noticed was that the seats weren’t lined up with the windows meaning that some rows had more window area to look out of that others. We selected a row towards the front of the aircraft, row 2, and settled in for the 50 minute flight.

There was a surprising amount of legroom for such a small aircraft….

Air Tahiti Review – ATR-72 Seats

…and I’m not entirely convinced that our row didn’t have a bit more legroom than the rows further back but I can’t be sure of that. The important takeaway being that the seats were pretty comfortable.

Air Tahiti Review – ATR-72 Seats

Everything around us was just as you’d expect on an aircraft, even one this small. Seat back magazine holders…..

Air Tahiti Review – ATR-72

…and a small tray table:

Air Tahiti Review – ATR-72

Most importantly, we had a good amount of window to look out of:

Air Tahiti Review – ATR-72

We pushed back a minute ahead of schedule, we were in the air a few minutes later and on our way to Bora Bora.

Wow. We were actually nearly there. A lot of planning went into this trip and it had all seemed a long way away when the planning started. But now we were on the last leg and I’ve got to admit that I was excited…in a “I can’t believe we’re actually here” kind of way – I almost certainly had a ridiculous looking grin on my face 🙂

Anyway…back to the review….

Shortly after take-off the one and only fight attendant came around with complementary beverages (a choice of water or guava juice if I remember correctly) and snacks were available for purchase:

300 CFP is equal to around US$2.85 so the chips weren’t cheap!

Alcoholic drinks weren’t available as we were flying before 9am but, should you fly later, this is the offering:

Air Tahiti Review – ATR-72

But we weren’t there for snacks or drinks, we were there to look out of the window to see what we were flying over and flying to….so that’s what we did for most of the flight:

Air Tahiti Review – View of French Polynesia

Air Tahiti Review – View of French Polynesia

And, as we approached Bora Bora, choosing seats on the left side of the aircraft paid off as we got a great view of our home for the next seven nights….

Air Tahiti Review – View of French Polynesia

…as well as the airport we were about to land at:

Air Tahiti Review – View of French Polynesia

Bottom Line

The 45 – 50 minute flight was actually not bad at all and went by pretty quickly…which I guess it would do when you’re as excited as we were.

We departed on time, the aircraft was clean, the flight attendant was friendly and we had more legroom than I expected – there was really nothing bad about the experience. Most importantly we were finally in Bora Bora so, when we disembarked, that briefly made Air Tahiti my favorite airline of all time 🙂