Never Heard of It
April 13, 2026
I’m not sure how much of a bragging point it might be, but my knowledge of the world’s airlines is, I have to admit, fairly encyclopedic. Name an airline and chances are I can give you a brief synopsis of its routes, its history, and so forth. Inversely, pick any region of the world, and I can quickly name the carriers, big or small, that operate there.
Or so I thought. Maybe I’m not so good at this anymore.
I was in Palawan, a couple of weeks ago, in the Philippines, looking to book a flight from Busuanga back to Cebu. I ended up buying a ticket on something called Sunlight Air, which I’d never in my life heard of until Kayak.com told me about it.
Wikipedia calls Sunlight a “boutique airline.” When I hear that I think small, independent and friendly, with a dash of style. I don’t know about the style part, but the rest of it makes sense: Sunlight flies only a foursome of ATR turboprops. The price was right, the flight left on time, and the cabin crew were disarmingly cheerful.
I was wary at first, but maybe this mystery airline thing isn’t so bad.
And getting to ride in the ATR was a fun little throwback for me. You don’t see many turboprops any more, versatile as they are, now that RJs have taken over the world. I have about 400 hours of first officer time in the ATR, from my (brief) tenure at American Eagle back in the mid-1990s.
My infatuation with commercial aviation has made me knowledgeable about other things as well. As a kid I would pore over timetables and route maps of the world’s airlines, and through that process became a minor expert in geography. I can name the capital of almost any country in the world. Give me a city, a river, or a mountain, and I can tell you where it is.
Normally. I must need a refresher course or something, because that day in the Philippines wasn’t the first time I found myself stumped.
The other time was in Bangkok, headed to Paro, in Bhutan. The airline was Drukair, Bhutan’s government-run carrier. No surprise there, Drukair had been on my to-fly list for some time. What I didn’t know, however, is where the plane was actually going.
The flight to Paro would be making a stop. I was aware of this when I bought the ticket, but hadn’t thought much about where that stop might be. An atlas would suggest Calcutta, or maybe Dhaka?
But as I walked up to the check-in counter at the Bangkok airport, there on the marquee was a name — a place — that made no sense to me. “Gauhati,” it said.
I stared, wondering vaguely what that word might mean, or how to say it.
What it meant was a city in northeastern India. I’d later learn that Gauhati (also spelled Guwahati), is home to almost a million people.
And so it happened that, for the first and only time in my life, I boarded a jetliner headed to a city I had never heard of before showing up at the airport.
Travel is all about discovery, they say. I can vouch for that. It can teach you, too, that you’re not as worldly and smart as you think you are.
Photos by the author.
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7 Responses to “Never Heard of It”
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Seat11A?
We see more turboprops in Europe than you do, I think. Regional jets are much less of a thing than in the US. Discount airlines are a much bigger part of the market than in the US, and they like to fly a fleet of aircraft with a single type rating – either 737s or A320 family aircraft depending on the airline – and you often see these on the busier routes where you might see a regional jet in the US. For the routes that genuinely can’t support an aircraft that big or where the airports aren’t suitable, ATRs tend to be the thing. There are certain places where you will see large numbers of them – the Greek islands and the Canary Islands being two such places. I have a friend who is an ATR first officer for Emerald Airlines (operating as Aer Lingus regional), also.
When I visit my family in Australia I see lots of turboprops, but not ATRs. Qantas and its affiliated carriers seem to prefer Dash-8s. Australia has lots of remote but not very large towns that need air services, so they fly a lot of them.
That’s a great “exotic flight” criterion! Pretty sure I haven’t ever gotten on a flight to a city I’ve never heard of. My own fun feat is to fly a segment taking off from an airport I’ve never been to *and* landing at an airport I’ve never been to. It’s harder than it sounds because it requires a ground leg beforehand! I only manage to do it once or twice a decade despite taking 50-100 flghts most years.
“You don’t see many turboprops any more, versatile as they are, now that RJs have taken over the world.”
I often have joked that I like riding in a prop plane, especially some ancient machine with round reciprocating engines, because all that racket being emitted discourages my seatmate from attempting to engage me in inane chatter about their grand kids and how topsy-turvy their life has been following their fifth marriage. 🙂
Lest you think I am some sort of anti-social dinosaur, I’m okay with a little bit of conversation while zooming through the sky. However, it always seems my luck is to be seated next to someone who just cannot shut up. 🙁 I prefer that most of my flying time be consumed with deep thought about projects on which I am working, so some metaphoric silence is indeed golden.
So I will take that ATR over a regional jet any time! I like that sonic symphony of whistling turbines and prop buzz, especially the effects heard when prop pitch is changed at the start of the takeoff roll or immediately after touch down.
That said, I took my first airplane ride (in 1955 on a DC-6) when there was no turbine whine, instead the prop buzz being accompanied by the snarl of a quartet of Double Wasp radials at full throttle. The sound of those magnificent engines (“Place your trust in God and Pratt & Whitney”, said many a 1950’s-era pilot) spinning 13-foot diameter propellers is the aero equivalent of the finale of Beethoven’s Ninth.
Hey I stopped in Guwahati once, on a flight from Imphal to Calcutta. The stopover was insignigicant. Were glad to be on the plane after a 2-day wait because the government decided the flight couldn’t go because it was raining?! What was memorable is the pilot, an older fellow, hand-flying the 737 over the tree tops the entire way. He was clearly having fun and it was thrilling. This was >20 years ago–probably wouldn’t happen now. Meow.
While reading Cockpit Confidential, I decided to hop on to your website to see if it was being updated. How refreshing to see that it is. Great writing as always, Captain. Sending you peace and blessings.
I ride those little ATRs quite often (for me) with Japan Air Commuter, heading to the miniature but perfectly formed airport on Yakushima. Highly recommend it if you’re nearby and have the time.