Air Algerie doesn't fly Airbus A320s, so imagine the surprise when your Algiers-to-Tunis business class ticket puts you on exactly that. The airline covers its short-haul network with wet-leased aircraft from Avion Express, a Lithuanian charter operator with a Maltese-registered fleet — and it's notably poor at telling passengers about this at booking. A recent one-hour hop from Algiers (ALG) to Tunis (TUN) offered a close-up look at what that means in practice.
The aircraft in question was an 18-year-old A320 with a properly well-travelled past: it launched with Wizz Air Ukraine in 2008, joined the main Wizz Air fleet, then moved to Avion Express in 2021 and has since rotated through wet leases for Eurowings, British Airways and others. Wet leasing means the plane, pilots and cabin crew all come from the lessor, while the ticket, catering and branding come from Air Algerie.
The catch for premium passengers: this particular A320 has no real business class cabin. The first three rows of standard economy seats — 180 seats in a 3-3 layout — get their middles blocked, creating 12 "business" seats. The upside of such an old cabin is well-padded seats, a rarity in the slimline era; the downside is worn interiors, no power ports, no Wi-Fi and no entertainment. Fine for 60 minutes in the air, but manage expectations.
The ground experience had its quirks too. The boarding pass announced boarding 90 minutes before departure for an A320 — wildly optimistic, as it turned out, since crew only appeared 25 minutes after the stated time, and the gate was unmanned well past it. Once boarding began, it was a scrum with no business class priority, punctuated by four separate passport and boarding pass checks between the gate agent and the aircraft door.
Onboard, the flight ran on time and the cabin was nearly empty — three commercial passengers plus a commuting pilot. Pre-departure drinks and a packaged towel were offered, and breakfast was a genuinely decent hot spread of scrambled eggs, vegetables and meat, plus yoghurt, a croissant and a pastry. Presentation, though, involved everything being deposited on the tray in one unceremonious pile, and the coffee was instant-packet level. Service from the Avion Express crew was functional rather than warm, with a lone Air Algerie attendant along, in theory supervising, who spent most of the flight relaxing in a business seat.
So is it worth paying for business class here? For a one-hour flight, the honest answer is that it doesn't matter much. The food was good, the schedule held, and blocked-middle seating is fine — but this isn't a premium product, and Air Algerie's own long-haul business class has drawn even harsher verdicts. If you're routing between North Africa and Europe via Algiers, book the fare for the price and the routing, not the cabin. And if you're keen on the destination itself, note that Algeria's visa process remains complicated, while neighbouring Tunisia offers the Mediterranean appeal with far easier entry.
Review source: One Mile at a Time
