Just got back from Paris (via London). Really good trip. Flew BA 747-400 each way from YYZ-LHR-YYZ (though the return was supposed to be a 777). Good service on BA, got bumped to a bulkhead seat on the outbound as I am tall–very nice. The traffic over Heathrow was really unbelievable. Arrived at about 6:15 am and circled for a bit, you could see aircraft immediately above you and beside you. Quite spectacular as dawn was breaking over London.
Where possible in the future I will avoid Heathrow, I love the airport, great viewing available, however, at the end of a seven hour flight circling around for twenty or so minutes, plus the congestion on the ground, well, it gets to be a bit much. Did see Qatar’s A330 though, really nice, it took off ahead of us.
LHR-CDG-LHR flew 757, no problems, great service.
Seeing CDG for the first time reminded me about how much room CDG has to grow, and the potential threat it poses to LHR. CDG is just massive in terms of land available, a very, very spacious airport. Used terminal 1 which is a bit dated, but I can see how it was very space age for its time…those French.
If you haven’t been to Paris, it’s a fantastic city.
Have a good day.
By: wysiwyg - 13th November 2002 at 22:56
RE: Back from Europe
London airports peak at 6am onwards as there is a jet ban before this time. This is a bit of a misnomer as it is not an actual ban just a significantly increased charge to land before this time, so all the trans-atlantics try to arrange their arrivals to be at 6am or after, creating a bottleneck.
By: Saab 2000 - 13th November 2002 at 18:59
RE: Back from Europe
I’m glad you enjoyed your trip to Europe.
I very much agree with you about CDG. It does indeed have a lot of room to grow CDG. While flying over on my trip to Paris,you could see the mass of land which is available because for landing,CDG is just massive in terms of land available around the airport.I’m not sure if I agree with you on spacious.T1 I found very cramped.When you check in I found all the desks very close together and claustrophobic.The shopping area was also very small and the walkways were full of people.
Terminal 1 is very outdated (Some may remember my comments on it) the escalators are interesting though! However I can see that it was a very modern terminal.
You must have been in satellite 5?Fantastic views of the apron from there!
Paris is a fantastic City,I agree with you there.
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November 13, 2002 at 6:10 pm