Aircalin

SYD-NOU Economy A330. Wonderful flight and service - especially compared to Qantas on the way back! Great food. Lovely wine and digestif..

SYD-NOU: We departed with an hour's delay and arrived late not too bad though. The plane was super very new and very clean the staff attentive and the food great. It was a very French experience their English could be improved.

The planes are quite new A320 & 330 roomy and comfortable featuring blue lagoon (fishes) seats. Nice PTVs (reliable and good quality screen and content) in A330. A320 have footrests adjustable headrest and good pitch even in economy. Hibuscus business class seats on 320 & 330 are very good especially for 2 or 3 hours flights. Meals are good even on short flights (NOU-BNE 1:35) you have a hot meal with choice of 2 dishes if the flight is on lunch or dinner time if not a snack or breakfast. On medium (PPT) to long haul flight (NRT & KIX) you have two meals. Wines champagne in business class liqueur after meals and aperitif. Overall good FA although it can really depend : there are better and worse FA. The check-in is usually efficient excepted during christmas holidays : additional flights and Noumea Tontouta's 12 check- in counters are not enough for 3 flight nearly at the same time. Boarding is quick and flight rarely late.

SYD-NOU Business Class. Nice roomy A330 - very clean and well maintained. Friendly crew - nice champagne and wines but food not up to much. Pleasant relaxing and uneventful flight.

NOU-NRT return. Almost new Airbus A330 good flight entertainment system but the crew wasn't nice and seem to be inexperienced and not very conscious about safety (customers walking in the cabin while the seatbelt sign was on). The meals were similar to low cost airlines and choice of drinks was also very poor. I wish I had the choice of another airlines between Noumea and Tokyo but unfortunately Air Calin is the only one on this destination.

Brisbane-Noumea-Brisbane. The legroom on the A320 was great. The cabin service was ok. The entertainment program on both legs was very ordinary and the food abysmal - I am sure that the sandwiches and cake for the Sunday flight were prepared on Friday - they were extremely dry and the cucumber in the sandwiches had dried out and pickled itself. We did see a menu left behind from the previous segment from Auckland - it looked much better. The quality of food and entertainment really let the airline down.

As a regular traveller throughout the Pacific for over 30 years I have found the Aircalin services especially good. The check in service is excellent and friendly the staff helpful for those who don't speak French. The menus are always a surprise with generous meals and drinks presented in immaculate style. Their new planes are first class in comparison with the Qantas 767 Sunday afternoon flight from Noumea to Sydney where old planes (200 series) and grumpy staff generally bring you back to earth with all of the finesse of a smack in the face.

Travelled SYD-NOU-SYD with Air Calin. The experience could only be described as brilliant. Take-off was on-time in both directions food was very acceptable in-flight service was impeccable with wine drinks and quality French brandy offered to all in economy class. The aircraft was new and very clean. I would highly recommend them and would definitely fly with them again

Air Calin AKL-NOU (originally also NOU-AKL as well - but they decided to go on strike). Apart from boarding the aircraft (a beautiful A330) and waiting around an hour for who knows what reason as all passengers were seated and ready for some tropical sunshine and French culture which awaited us 3 hours away it was a pleasant and well done flight. My Kosher meal was bought to me before take off so I could "break the seal" and it could be heated up for me - the meal was nice but lacked presentation and creativity of everyone elses meals - which looked and smelt divine. The FA's all very well groomed and with mediocre manors were to some extent inhibited with their english skills which were good but just hidden behind shyness. The seats were very comfortable excellent PTV entertainment with each movie in four languages and at least 6 options + games - too much for a less than 3 hour flight. The inflight mag was also good but there wasn't much in the way of newspapers. Very scenic approach to Noumea - however I was a bit concerned about one of the stewardess' continuing a conversation with a passenger she obviously knew for half the flight (not actually doing any thing else after the meal was served) and continuing it until about 20 seconds to touch down - way after the announcement had been made to be seated. Tantouta airport is not made to handle a full A330 on a summer day it felt like there was no air con and the lines were horrendous - made worse with another wait for our bags. Customs was very relaxed though...as was any laws regarding smoking. Coming home was a bit of a feat. We turned up at the airport at 5 am after being told that there was only one previously delayed flight going to AKL due to a flight attendant strike or something along those lines. We were put up in a rat hotel by the airport by Air Calin until 1am in the morning when we were all shuttled back to the airport to check in etc (more lines) and a few hours later find out that our rescue ride home hadn't even left NZ yet - more waiting in one of the least entertaining airports in the world. Finally our air NZ plane arrived (on which my boarding pass was labelled with KSML yet did I get one - pity as I was looking forward to the far more entertaining Air Calin to carry me home and end my French Fling in my favourite holiday destination with a French Flair and decent service!

I recently travelled Aircalin BNE-NOU-BNE in economy class and cannot report with the same enthusiasm as other reviewers. The meal out of BNE was served immediately upon take-off and fell well short of the 'French-style cuisine' advertised on Aircalin's website consisting of a stale bread roll 4 slices of cold meat and a bland lettuce salad. The seat pitch in economy was reasonable and the PTV's on the A320 offered a good range of options including movies games and destination info. FA's were efficient though it was obvious that French-speaking passengers were receiving preferential service. The return flight was delayed by 2 hours due to the crew needing a rest (bad scheduling?). Meal on the return flight on the smaller 737 was better again served immediately upon takeoff. FA's were not to be seen for the rest of the flight once the meal service was over. No PTV's on the 737 and the entertainment on the main screens was only in French with no subtitles. Generally the experience was very average and I would not be in a hurry to fly Aircalin again.