I left home at 6:05 to go to the airport by car and I arrived that the airport at 6:35 had). I had checked in by Internet for both flights the day before, but still had to stand in the queue to register my baggage (no baggage drop in like with SN: one bad point for Swiss).
I then walked to Gate 29 in Terminal B and had breakfast (a croissant and a coffee) at the "Corner" in the middle of the Terminal.
BRU-ZRH
Flight: LX 771, codeshared with SN
Aircraft: Airbus A319 HB-IPU
Seat: 10A grey leather in a 3-3 configuration (window, on the emergency exit above the wing)
Departure time scheduled/actual: 07:35/08:00 (air traffic control delay)
Arrival time scheduled/actual: 08:50/09:10
Load factor: 90% in Economy, about 10 pax for 7 rows in Business
Boarding was from gate B29 and started a full 30 minutes before the scheduled departure time. No wonder that it was finished 10 minutes ahead of schedule. I settled in my window seat, with a lot of legroom due to the emergency exit; it was nice and comfortable in a spot-clean cabin. A stewardess came to explain me how to open the emergency exit and asked me if I was feeling OK to do it in case of need. Then captain Hautier announced an ATC delay of 25 minutes. He would try to shorten it, but eventually did not manage and the plane was pushed back 25 minutes late.
The Captain proceeded smoothly to runway 25R, but had to wait there for another 5 minutes before being allowed to take off. Meanwhile our 3 friendly cabin crew (two stewardesses and a steward) made the safety announcements in French, German and English, with a tape-recorded message in Dutch.
As soon as the "fasten seat belt" light went off, the stewardesses started serving breakfastin C class and a few minutes later a muffin in Y class. I asked for an orange juice with it.
The flight itself was uneventful: not much to see through the heavy clouds. Before arrival the screens showed our gate of arrival A82 and the departure gates for the connecting flights. My flight to Istanbul was announced at Gate A75, not far away thus. From my plane at gate A75 I took this picture:
After disembarking I proceeded directly to the departure gate, underwent a new baggage scan (more serious than in Brussels, as my hand baggage had to be hand-checked and a bottle of perfume was singled out as not being correctly packaged in a transparent plastic bag.
ZRH-IST
Flight: LX 1800 (no codeshare!)
Aircraft: Airbus A320 HB-IJN (thanks to Robin Bamps for the registration)
Seat: 14F (window) grey leather in a 3-3 configuration
Departure time scheduled/actual: 09:50/10:15
Arrival time scheduled/actual: 13:35/13:40
Load factor: 80% in Y, 30% in C
Boarding started at 09:45. When everybody was on board, at around 10:00, the captain made a strange announcement: "Ladies and gentlemen, a typical Swiss story has occurred. A small plane landed on the main runway; its engine stalled and it could not roll away. We will thus be delayed by approximately another 15 minutes, in order to allow the control tower to rearrange the runways."
And so we waited until 10:15 for pushback. Four stewardesses tended for the passengers. Announcements were made first in German, French and English. Just before takeoff from the newly allocated Runway 34, the captain announced that due to strong tail winds we would not be delayed to much on arrival.
Meanwhile I could spot a few interesting birds: a Malaysian B777, the Delta B767 in Habitat colours, etc.
Once at cruising altitude a meal was served first in C class, and a choice of three hot filled wraps in Y class. I chose the spinach wrap, which was not a good idea, because the filling was rather liquid and dripping everywhere. I asked for a beer and got a 33 cl can of Heineken instead
. As I was thirsty, I asked for another one when the stewardess came around for the second order of drinks.The flight route took us over Klagenfurt, Ljubljana, Belgrade and Sofia. Quite interesting, but mostly covered by clouds which only cleared over Bulgaria. The views on the Istanbul approach were stunning, first over the Sea of Marmara and some islands, than over some land to the Black Sea, and finally to Atatürk airport with a view on the Bosphorus.
As the captain had predicted, arrival was only 5 minutes late. Istanbul is a modern airport with all the facilities of an international airport. Only the delivery of visas on arrival is a little bit slow, and then you must queue again for passport control.
Two nice flights. A good experience, notwithstanding the high load factors.
