As you may know, I was in Berlin at the Weekend on tour with Rugby Football Club Basel, and, while I joined the boys on the team Bus on Friday on the way up, I flew back down with easyJet on Sunday. This was my first flight with a Low Cost airline (I refuse to count LX as one, they’re certainly no frills, but deffo not low cost 😡 ), so it was an experience I’d been looking forward to. I got to the Airport early, and had to wait 40 minutes before checkin for my 6:25pm flight started.
Team photo.
Boarding Card.
By: Arabella-Cox - 17th August 2004 at 18:53
Superb report, those in-flight photos were 10/10!
By: Pablo - 17th August 2004 at 12:41
Absolutely fantastic report as yours always are, and loved the photos 🙂
Agreed – very interesting reading.
By: LBARULES - 17th August 2004 at 12:04
Absolutely fantastic report as yours always are, and loved the photos 🙂
By: Bmused55 - 17th August 2004 at 11:17
Excellent report!
What is it with folk drinking Gin and Tonics on flights!?
By: Bhoy - 17th August 2004 at 10:47
So, in conclusion, what can I say, easyjet were good, hyper punctual, thoroughly enjoyable, and I look forward to having the chance to fly them again soon.
By: Bhoy - 17th August 2004 at 10:45
I disembarked via the rear Stairs again, and did manage to take a photo of the only aircraft on the freight stands, before heading back home, still wondering where Saturday night’s hangover was…
By: Bhoy - 17th August 2004 at 10:42
Scheduled time of arrival was 8pm, although we touched down at 7:28pm. The Terminal came into view before we’d left the runway, and it was obviously as busy as SXF had been 🙁
By: Bhoy - 17th August 2004 at 10:38
inflight time was a total of 64 minutes (and 41.0 seconds, if you want to be precise), despite the schedule being 95 minutes. It indeed wasn’t long before Alsace came into view and we descended over the Rhone-Rhine Canal, before touching down in full view of BSL’s fire station (that’s the building with the tower)
By: Bhoy - 17th August 2004 at 10:33
and there we were, up in the air. Now, let’s talk punctuality… as I said, scheduled departure time was 6:25pm, we took off at 6:23pm (!).
Inflight Bar service, well worth 6Euros of anyone’s money… 😉
By: Bhoy - 17th August 2004 at 10:30
Legroom I suppose was just about passable, although I was intrigued by the PA system…
The Safety demonstration was first described in German, before being described on a tape in French, before the crew showed up, and perfomed the demonstration as it was read out by the senior FA, in English (she was english, though, as, going by his accent, was the captain).
There was a request to keep the blinds up during takeoff (there was a question about this a month or two ago).
There were a couple of planes parked up outside the LH Technik Hangar beside the runway at the other side of the airfield.
By: Bhoy - 17th August 2004 at 10:23
looking at the queue, I obviously hoofed it round to the rear of the aircraft, and selected Seat 20A, where I could see the ‘action’ that was happening on the Apron…
By: Bhoy - 17th August 2004 at 10:20
Come to think of it, there wasn’t much to do airside, either, the DutyFree and a Bar, and that being about it. Plus with the length of the queues in the DutyFree as the Aeroflot crew stocked up on Cognac (I’m not joking… ever seen a shopping basket with 8 bottles of the stuff in it?)
So after yet another Pils (for the road, this time) in the Bar, it was time to head down to the gate. Once again, flying to Switzerland means going through a Passport check at the gate, as you’re leaving the EU. But this did mean that we didn’t have a gate equiped with an airbridge, so it was a walk across the Tarmac to our SXF-based A319, G-EZEG (delivered new 1st April this year) (it had arrived 40 minutes prior to our scheduled takeoff, if I’m not mistaken, it was inbound from Bristol). As I walked out, a Germanwings A320 parked up right in front of me, whilst the Aeroflot plane pulled out.
By: Lawstud - 17th August 2004 at 09:59
Anyways, there wasn’t a lot to do at Schönefeld landside, if it’s to become the new Gateway to Berlin and be renamed ‘Berlin Brandenburg International’ (which is the stated objective), they’ll have to do a fair bit of work, in my humble opinion.
They really have to do a lot in SXF and the areaaround, it still has a very socialistic touch down there. Not a very good entry for Berlin, but as I flew to Orly the other day, I was glad to see that the Airport doesn´t look much better then SXF…..
By: Bhoy - 17th August 2004 at 09:30
Anyways, there wasn’t a lot to do at Schönefeld landside, if it’s to become the new Gateway to Berlin and be renamed ‘Berlin Brandenburg International’ (which is the stated objective), they’ll have to do a fair bit of work, in my humble opinion.
Admittedly, there was a visitor centre, but it was the other side of the Car Park, and having done a bit of sightseeing in the City earlier, I couldn’t be bothered trudging back over lugging my kit bag with me. There was also a viewing terrace, but a) you couldn’t take luggage with you, and b) it cost 2Euros per adult to go out, and, considering their were a total of 2 aircraft outside, I passed up on the chance.
As soon as I’d checked in, I made my way through security and up to the DutyFree (priorities are paramount, after all). Jeez, those Orange Walls in the stairwell of the easyJet terminal were bright!
Anyway, parked up behind the dutyFree was the one flight I’d been looking forward to see, unfortunately, it was one of the company in question’s more modern planes, I’d been hoping for one of their native built ones, preferably in their old livery. But none the less, there was Aeroflot A319 VP-BDM.
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August 17, 2004 at 9:13 am