AC FRA-YUL_YYZ

After arriving from Stuttgart at Frankfurt airport’s trainstation, I made my way effortlessly to quickly to into the terminal area. Altough Frankfurt airport is now fairly dated (the new terminal will be a great addition), the inhouse train station has to be a major selling point for persons visiting visiting the continent off-of long-haul.

I got to the AC desk to find out that there were no window seats left, and that the 777 service directly into YYZ was even more oversold. I knew I was travelling on a A330, and I also knew that these plans had not been refurbished with the new inflight service as they were to go the way of the dodo in favour of the 787 (delayed, thank you, Boeing). However, it would be my first trip on an A330, so I looked on the bright side.

The tarmac views from the terminal really are very good, though the building is very congested. Boarding was effortless and the ground staff did a great job of getting everyone on board in an orderly manner (even turning back a woman who tried to jump the line – boarded rear to front by seat number).

I was sitting smack dab in the middle of the twin-engine bird, and as expected, drop down screens were the order of the day. Not expected, however, was that my sound system would not work (really cursing Boeing at this point). I was sitting amongst three friendly and youthful flying companions for my journey, so it could have been much worse.

We pushed back smack on time, and made a very short taxi to the runway threshold for a westerly departure.

In contrast to my inbound journey, the A330 inhaled most of the runway before venturing to the skies and we made a gradual climb out of FRA. The crossing was quiet with one highlight occuring when I looked far to my right out the window to see a BA772 cruising just below us at great speed.

Our decent into YUL was smooth as well, we landed to the north in falling soft snow. The tarmac was relatively quiet and we made our way to the terminal. YUL has a massive customs hall, really impressive, and I got to by-pass most of the lines as I was a connecting passenger.

The final leg of my trip, one hour flight, was aboard a B763, and it was loaded to the gills. This appears to be a big connection flight for AC, as there were many accents in the cabin from people discussing the length of their day thus far.

The snow was falling though not sticking, and our pilot advised us this would not require deicing. I had a window this time, mercifully, and enjoyed the final moments prior to push back.

We taxied very quickly to the runway and really powered off of the piano keys getting airborne in not time at all (very impressive) with a steep climb and subsequent sharp left turn to the west and Toronto.

We made the usual constant approach into YYZ with little deviation from our original heading. Landing was very smooth and we used a rapid exit off of the runway where we finished our slow down.

All in all, a pleasant journey. The lack of seat back screens just doesn’t cut it anymore when travelling long-distance, though I’m sure AC is only too aware of this. The flight attendants, though quite senior, were friendly. On-time performance was exceptionally good. Next time I will try MUC to check out their facilities.