I quite enjoyed the Britten-Norman BN-2 “Islander” on our Air Tetiaroa flight from Tahiti to Tetiaroa, but also enjoyed the larger de Havilland Canada Dash 6-300 Twin Otter on our way back.
Air Tetiaroa De Havilland Canada Dash 6-300 Twin Otter Review (TTI-PPT)
Round-trip tickets from Tahiti cost €500 each and will be booked on your behalf by The Brando and added to your folio.
About 40 minutes before departure we were picked up in our room via golf cart and taken to the TTI departure lounge, which is closer to the guest rooms than to the airstrip.
The lounge included a seating area with non-alcoholic beverages (soft drinks, water, coffee, tea) and some delicious homemade cookies…simply subliminal.
There was also a shared restroom.
A few minutes before departure time, a safety video was screened and then we were all taken to the aircraft in a caravan of golf carts. As a quartet of staff members said goodbye, we boarded the flight (again having to surrender our hand baggage, which would be claimed planeside in Tahiti).
Air Tetiaroa 42
Tetiaroa Atoll (TTI) – Papeete (PPT)
Sunday, March 24
Depart: 2:59 PM
Arrive: 3:16 PM
Duration: 0hr, 27min
Distance: 37 miles
Aircraft: DHC6-300
Production of this aircraft type began in 1965 and continues today (though there was a pause from 1988 to 2008).
The safety card says “Viking” because Viking Air purchased the type certificate from de Havilland Canada (DHC), then restarted production in 2008 before re-adopting the DHC name in 2022.
Here’s a take-off video…I was so sad to leave The Brando:
It was a short and uneventful 15-minute flight to Tahiti:
Porters met the flight and helped each family with their bags.
We walked over to the international terminal for lunch before taking a cab back to the InterContinental where we waited for check-in to open for our flight home to Los Angeles.
CONCLUSION
It’s rare that I praise a carrier that does not offer any onboard service…hahaha…but Air Tetiaroa is quite unique. The flights back and forth to The Brando were two of the most beautiful flights I have ever taken in terms of scenery. I cannot wait to return to The Brando and fly Air Tetiaroa again.
Matthew – what a great posting with beautiful photos. Of my 19,000+ flight hours from Cessna’s to Boeing 747’s, the 3-years and 2,000 hours of flying the Dash-6 (Known as a DHC-6 then) were some of my most treasured. Not a looker, we used to joke that we had to blind fold the passengers to get them to board. Being so slow, we also joked that the biggest threat was a bird strike – from the rear! But what a joy to fly. Stable, rugged and always reliable – and NEVER equipped with an autopilot. Thank you for posting.
Matthew, my daily blog posts stopped coming to my emails–I had subscribed to them… Help!
We are having some tech issues – trying to get thsi resolved.
What is the cause of the rainbow like cloud shadow of the airplane? I’ve seen it on similar low altitude flights
This is a Brocken Spectre (originally named when seen in mountains in Germany) and is an effect when sun shines past you into misty (or cloudy) conditions.