Air Madagascar Passenger Reviews and Air Madagascar Customer Trip Reports   No Ranking Awarded       Add your Air Madagascar Review   Air Madagascar Star ranking   Airline Reviews : A-Z Index   Customer Review scoring : Air Madagascar 20 reviews

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Air Madagascar customer review :  13 October 2012 by Johan Nel   (South Africa)

Definitely the worst airline I ever flew. We recently flew with them on a short holiday to Madagascar. The flight from Johannesburg to Nosy Be has been delayed several times the last few weeks. We kept track of it, the one week it left 4 hours late, the next week 2 hours late, the next week (when we flew) it left only 90 minutes late. While we were in Madagascar, two days before our flight back to South Africa, our travel agent in South Africa notified us on 4 Oct 2012 that our flight back from Antananarivo to Johannesburg on 6 Oct 2012 was changed from the original scheduled time of 1340 to 1720. A bit later that day we received an SMS from the travel agent that the time has changed again to 1600. By 2100 I received a further SMS from the agent that the departure time has again changed this time to 1850. We eventually left Antannarivo at about 1910. All of this meant that we missed our connecting flight to Cape Town. At least Air Madagascar set us up the night in a hotel in Johannesburg. I then had to buy other tickets to fly back to Cape Town and claimed that from the travel insurance - luckily they paid that out except for the excess. Chatting to other travellers on the same flight we realised that we were very lucky, some people spend the week in Madagascar without their luggage as Air Madagascar left it back in Johannesburg, one group had nine missing luggage bags that was left behind by Air Madagascar in Nosy Be. These things were apparently regular happenings with Air Madagascar. Definitely our worst experience with an airline ever!

Air Madagascar customer review :  15 August 2012 by Robyn Barlow   (South Africa)

We travelled on Air Madagascar 5 times on our recent trip and were pleasantly surprised given older reviews (Tana to Majunga return, Tana to Sainte Marie, Sainte Marie to Tamatave, and Tulear to Tana). Flights departed mostly on time (Ivato airport was closed for 24 hours due to an insurgency at an army barracks close by, so our rescheduled flight from Majunga to Tana next day was late by a couple of hours as Air Madagascar struggled to catch up with the cancelled flights but this was the only major delay), all of our luggage arrived every time, staff were pleasant, the food was adequate and the quality of the planes was OK for the relatively short flights. It was peak season so flights were pretty full too. The only annoying thing is having to arrive at the airport 2 hours early for a domestic flight to check in and we made sure all flights were reconfirmed.

Air Madagascar customer review :  20 October 2011 by Peter Mair   (UK)

Antananarivo to Fort Dauphin. What to say about this chaotic airline, staffed by such smiling warm people? Shortly before the day of the flight, the departure time was changed from the afternoon to 5.00am, necessitating a hideously early start from the hotel. The flight actually departed at 6.15am. Old and shabby 737, almost empty. Cabin crew friendly. Breakfast rudimentary. Return departure changed at last minute from 9.25am to the afternoon and then departed some hour late! Same shabby 737 and similar friendly crew. You soon get used to Malagasy time; a bit like Greek time but more so!

Air Madagascar customer review :  18 August 2011 by C Arciszewska   (UK)

Tana to Fort Dauphin return. We had been warned about flight changes so checked in at the airline offices the day before our flight. Office staff were friendly and efficient and the flight left on time. Comfort and service onboard were fine and were all that I would have expected. My daughter's seat didn't have a life jacket and there was a notice on the seat in front that said - No life jacket, use seat bottom. Return flight left at the right time but I had intentionally allowed a whole day before my flight back to the UK just in case of delays. I thought it was very expensive for 2 short flights.

Air Madagascar customer review :  12 August 2011 by A Piper   (UK)

My 21 year old daughter was bumped off a flight from Fort Dauphan to Tana in Madagascar and left with no accommodation. She missed her connecting flight in Nairobi. We have heard this happens quite often and their seats are given to politicians. Like others she was told to present at the airport the next day to try to get on that days flight. She finally got home 3 days late.

Air Madagascar customer review :  8 July 2011 by C Jones   (Namibia)

Our flight from Johannesburg-Nossi Be was delayed by 16 hrs and the only excuse we heard was that they had a turn around of an aircraft and therefore the delay. At least they put us up in a very nice hotel and we also got lounge access at Johannesburg. When we finally got on the way, the flight was quite full and everybody just wanted to go. The plane is an older B737-300 and the inside is quite used and needs a make over. No on flight magazine or any other entertainment on the 4 hr flight. The on flight service is also something different! You get served food and a juice right after take off and that's it for the next 3 hrs. The stewardesses go take a nap on the last few rows and get up just before landing to check the cabin. The return flight was on time and we left about 15 mins earlier. Again the service on the flight is not great, but take along a bottle of water, a book and your fine. At least the flight is just under 4 hrs and that makes it worth going directly to Nossi Be instead of flying via Tana. The flight is not too expensive and if you can live without the new toys you now have on new planes, it's ok to use. One thing one must always remember, this is not Europe and you can't expect the same level of service, which somehow is sad, but that's just the way it is.

Air Madagascar customer review :  18 June 2011 by R Smith   (Canada)

Once you get in the air, your flight is fine. Pilots and attendants know what they are doing. It's the ground personnel that just haven't got a clue, nor do they want to. So expect long line ups, long waits without any information as to why. Oh and if your luggage doesn't show up, they probably have it out back and are going through it to see if there's anything of value they can take.

Air Madagascar customer review :  8 September 2010 by N Wait   (UK)

Flight cancelled from Nairobi to Tana in July, no reason given. The rescheduled flight the next day was 2 hours late. Since returning home I have tried to contact them for compensation - after 4 e-mails, I have not even had the decency of a reply.

Air Madagascar customer review :  16 August 2010 by S Calabrese   (France)

CDG-NOS-CDG B767 economy class. Check-in was incredibly long, since nearly each passenger was trying to bargain some extra kilos for their luggage. Air Madagascar B767 cabin is in rather poor condition. My seat was shaky (14C), earphone plug did not work well, which was not that important given the poorness of in-flight entertainment. No individual screens, but a main cabin TV screen was screening a blury, colorless picture - the inflight magazine dated Dec 2009 (flight taken late July 2010)! Seat pitch is quite tight, but no worse than other companies flying to Madagascar (Corsair and Air France). Meal more or less edible, drink supply was rather scarce. Cabin crew is okay as long as you can speak Malagasy or French. NOS-CDG was quite an experience! That was the first time in my life taking a long haul flight with no seat assigned! Seat-as-you-go concept left me puzzled, all the more because there were passengers coming from Moroni, Comoros, in transit, who got their seats taken by people embarking from NOS. Of course, this led to 45 mins delay. Otherwise, return flight was as expected, no leg space, no real in flight entertainment, and short on water supply. The only positive point flying Air Madagascar is that you can carry 30kgs + 12kg of luggage with no extra cost.

Air Madagascar customer review :  5 July 2009 by David Clark   (UK)

I'd rather walk than take this so-called airline again. We took 5 flights with them on a wedding/honeymoon and every single one of them was screwed up. CDG-TNR. Cancelled with no reason given. The previous 2 days flights were cancelled too - we were originally booked on one of these, but had to change our plans to this flight, which was also cancelled. We were each given E600 and sent to a rather poor airport hotel that was allegedly 4-star. There was now no way we could make it to the church on time. We were transferred to an Air France flight the next day. Rude staff, poorly designed aircon. The only thing I can say is the food for the main meal was "OK". Suitcase with my Fiancee's veil and the bridesmaids dresses got left behind in Paris, so had to do the wedding without. Tana-Tave. 90 mins late and then routed the long way around, stopping at Ste Marie first. Tave - St Marie. Moved forwards 2 hours and nobody bothered to tell us until it was too late. Arrived at the airport 2 mins before it started to taxi. Air Madagascar staff in the airport were rude and clearly didn't give a damn that they'd moved the flight without warning and we'd missed it. Just told us to "try again tomorrow" before walking away without even an apology! St Marie - 'Tana. Delayed 6 hours. Again, no reason given. Arrived in 'Tana with just enough time to check in for the international flight home. Tana - CDG B763. Flight over 30 mins late departing due to "technical" reasons. Onboard staff clearly couldn't care less about anything. Substandard legroom, my knees were tight in the back of the seat in front - fortunately she didn't recline it during the flight. The in-flight "entertainment" system looks like the original kit installed in the factory in the mid 1980s, which comprised of a ceiling mounted projector and a small screen at the front of the cabin. After 20 mins this packed up and only displayed in black & white for the majority of the flight. The choice of video was quite poor, with most of the time being spent showing an endless loop of Air Mad promotional videos highlighting their routes. This was peppered with cartoons and the mapping which shows where you are and your altitude. Needless to day, I didn't even bother taking the headphones out of the plastic bag. The food was terrible - we had chewy beef in a salty gravy with some stewed French beans. The desert wasn't edible, and I have no idea what it was. They were very tight with the drinks too. Talking to various people including hotel owners, last minute flight cancellations and moving the flight times without warning is common. The owner for the hotel in Ste Marie cursed them when we told them we wouldn't be arriving that day, it's apparently quite common. The staff on the internal flights were friendly, polite and caring. Can't knock them at all. However, the international staff were rude as hell - they simply couldn't care less about anything. Next time I return to Madagascar I'll be avoiding both Air Madagascar & Air France. The only reason I'd reluctantly consider using them again is if we need to use the full 40Kg baggage allowance for nationals. Other than that, I'll fly any other airline. This trip has left an exceedingly bitter taste in my mouth. The incompetence and negligence of the staff and management is totally unbelievable. With a "service" like this, it's no wonder that they are in serious financial trouble.

AIR MADAGASCAR review : 15 January 2009 : by M Hetra

Customer Rating : 3/5

CDG-TNR-CDG B767, TNR-NOS B737, NOS-TNR-TMM ATR 72, TMM-TNR Twin Otter. The seating on the B767 is uncomfortable. Entertainment poor and toilets not very clean. Positive points the FAs and food. A big positive point to the schedule - by leaving CDG at the end of the day, you don't waste the next one not withstanding the 10hours flight. Domestic flights were nice and acceptable. However, on the leg NOS-TNR, I experienced a 5 hours delay (quite usual).

AIR MADAGASCAR review : 27 October 2008 : by A Bratt

Customer Rating : 4/5

We used Air Madagascar for four internal flights. All four were reasonably on time (max delay about 45 mins). Cabin staff friendly and good complimentary snack and newspaper on each flight. Be prepared for very rapid braking at fort Dauphin (short runway)

Air Madagascar review by Dave Hodson

7 February 2007  Customer Trip Rating : n/a

Flew Air Madagascar frequently on a month-long trip from Canada over Christmas. International routing CDG-TNR-CDG. Also flew TNR-Morondava and back, TNR-Diego, Diego-NosyBe, NosyBe-TNR, TNR-SainteMarie and back. Across these flights, I experienced their B767 on the international route, the B737 on the flight to Diego, and ATR72s on the other domestic routes. Overall, I enjoyed the airline. The 767 does have a tired interior and I would certainly prefer to have preassigned seating. Flight attendants were friendly on all flights, but English was not good, so I'm not sure how I would have managed if my wife wasn't with me to translate from French and Malagasy into English. All of our flights left on time, but I couldn't understand why we were asked to arrive so early for these small flights. My biggest complaint is with the airports in Madagascar, not the airline. Seating is very limited, and if you can find it, it is most uncomfortable. Found the airport in Morondava to be surprisingly the best of the above locations, and the airport in Diego is just plain awful. I did find it difficult to deal with Air Madagascar when booking my tickets from Canada. You can't deal directly with the airline, but rather their North American agent, Sita World Travel, and I found they're agents friendly but not all that smart and very slow to answer e-mails. Simple questions like finding out flight availability and pricing seemed to be a big task. I would prefer an online reservation similar to that offered by other major airlines.

Air Madagascar review by Jeremy Irwin-Singer

28 September 2006

CDG-TNR-FDP-TNR-CDG The outbound flight was fine, but CDG was awful. The queues at check in were a bit long, but after an hour we were checked in. The food was nice, tea and coffee were served often, along with a choice of soft drinks. The seats were quite cramped, but there was just enough legroom. The choice of films were not up to much, but the music channels were fine, with some good Malagasy music in there as well. The aircraft was a 767-300. Flying from Tana (Antananarivo) to Fort Dauphin was an experience. We had to wait for 3 hours at the airport, being served coffee with horrible sweetened condensed milk, and being handed week old newspapers, with payment demanded. We checked in all right though. The plane was an old second generation 737, with no allocated seating. The announcements were in Malagasy and French, and some sort of inconprehensible English, which just sounded like the air hostess reading some English off a card. Almost no inflight service, just a drink of orange juice. Fort Dauphin Airport is interesting, no luggage belts so your bag number is shouted out, and you have to hand them your ticket to reclaim. The return trip was much the same as the first. At TNR, we were delayed for 2 hours for some technical fault which seemed to make no sense whatsoever. It was claimed that Engine number 3 had some sort of problem, but there are 2 engines on a 767. As neither of the engines were started when we got on the plane, the airconditioners weren't working. There are no vents above your head on this 767 either. Some people fainted as we waited for 2 hours on this sweltering plane, before we departed. We missed our connection at CDG too. In the end the flight was ok, good for third world, but bad for everything else.

Air Madagascar review by Philip Cokkinos

24 May 2006

MXP-NOS (Malpensa-Nosi Be) return in Economy. The Y fare is good, Business is expensive with no airmiles in any alliance so opted for Y class. Outbound leg on time (767), flight completely full, seat backs a little thin but reasonably comfortable (exit or bulkhead rows 11 18, 19, and 20 are best for legroom). FA's smiling, speak good French. Food and wine OK, soft drink selection limited, and they ran out of beer quickly. Movies surprisingly up to date (In Her Shoes etc) but dubbed in French or Italian, both of which I speak, but would have still preferred the original version. No PTV but ceiling screens every 8-10 rows. Landed in NOS on time, huge queues for visa-on-arrival in a tiny, stifling airport. Take my advice and obtain a visa beforehand, you will breeze through immigration. Return leg delayed by 5 hours, although I had confirmed the day before and had supplied a contact phone No I arrived at an empty NOS airport at 7am for a 9am flight to be greeted by a cleaning lady and told that the flight would leave after 12 noon. My friend and I spent 3 hours in a small, quaint cafe across the street from the terminal eating spaghetti and drinking Malagasy beer, overall an interesting way to spend time! At 10am some airport personnel started to arrive, apparently the plane had had engine trouble in Antananarivo hence the delay. Check-in began at 11.00, we managed to check-in among the first but long Italian queue in a tiny airport which cannot really handle such passenger numbers. The 767 left at 2pm, many empty seats on this leg so we could spread out a bit, OK inflight catering, 2 full meals, better drinks selection. Memorable daytime flight over Africa with fantastic views of Kilimanjaro and the Rift Valley.

Air Madagascar review by John Briginshaw

12 April 2006

BKK-TNR. This relatively new service is performed by leased B767. The layout is overwhelmingly economy (in a 2-3-2 configuration) with very modest seat pitch, but the flight we got was only about 60% full. Exit row seats 18ABFG and 19 ABFG give a good deal of extra legroom, with row 18 preferred due to row 19’s proximity to the lavatories (which seemed to get a lot of use in our flight!). However, none of these exit row seats recline. 20 C and E may have a bit more stretch room also. Service is good, but meals and entertainment are somewhat from a previous era, with one meal of a sandwich and some strange tasting orange juice, and with one screen for every 8 rows or so. On approach to landing an interesting looking video of Madagascar was shown, but unfortunately only with a French soundtrack, and quite poor audio at that.

Air Madagascar review by Diego Muccioli

13 September 2005

MXP-NOS-MXP Y-Class. Air Madagascar features quite old aircraft (B767) but clean. FA's attentive to passengers' needs, polite and ready to offer you a smile. Tasty food but poor entertainment program (no PTVs). Very punctual flights on both legs. Nice amenities were given on board.

Air Madagascar review by Ian Warland

29 April 2004

My recent experience shows Air Madagascar to have very poor customer service. I was downgraded from business to economy, 2 minutes before boarding, they said because business was full. However when we boarded business was less than half full. I asked to be moved to business since I had already paid for it. However they told me it was to late and against the procedures. Why have stewards on the flight if they can't make simple decisions especially if the airline has clearly made a mistake. I feel cheated by the airline.

Air Madagascar review by Pierre E Leblache

6 February 2004

Air Madagascar, which has a dense domestic network and reasonable regional links, has at this time only one intercontinental route, Paris - Antananarivo, and one aircraft to fly the route, a Boeing 767-300 Extended Range, which comes from Air Canada and is fitted with the current AC Business Class long range seat, a six abreast, 66 inch pitch recliner with extendable foot rest. Not quite a bed, but an extremely comfortable arrangement with at least 160 degrees recline and almost horizontal leg support. This is superior to any competing business class seat in the region. The lumbar support is deactivated and mostly stuck in the "hard" position, a minor inconvenience, as is the availability of only 1 toilet in business class, sometimes insufficient for a 24 seat cabin plus use by the crew. On the other hand, when was the last time you found real cloth lemon grass scented napkins in the lavatory, reminiscent of another age? Food and beverage service are of a high standard, not quite the F/C service of top long range airlines, but well above normal intercontinental business class. DVDs are provided, with a limited choice of films. Service by the crew was always attentive, polite and going the extra mile. Punctuality was perfect to the minute on both legs of the round trip. Although there is only one aircraft serving the route, scheduling provides for extended periods to catch up with delays before the next flight. Altogether a very enjoyable experience, definitely superior to the competition's product.