After several standard, not too exciting low cost carrier flights from Vienna to places like Amsterdam and Brussels, I got the opportunity to make a day trip to Geneva, trying out a new carrier and aircraft types I had never been on before.
Baboo is small Swiss airline based in Geneva. They started out with a couple of Dash 8-300s and have now upgraded and expanded their fleet, currently consisting of the Dash 8-Q400 and the Embraer E190. As an aviation enthusiast, I was excited by the prospect of flying a new airline, new aircraft types and a new route, as I had never been in Geneva before.
I booked the flights online on Baboo’s website less than a week before the trip. The air fare of more than 400 euros for the return trip was quite steep, however as I was invited and the flights paid for, this wasn’t a big issue. Nevertheless, Baboo has entered a niche market until now dominated by Austrian and Swiss, who code-share on the Vienna-Geneva route, so hopefully this will bring prices down somewhat on this sector. On my particular day of travel, although the Baboo air fare was high, it was still almost half the price of the air fare with Austrian/Swiss for a day return ticket.
Booking via the site was done following the usual steps but once the fares were confirmed, the system showed the option to allocate seats. After clicking on this, however, a cabin seating plan was shown of the aircraft but all seats were marked as not available. Once the booking was completed and I had received my reservation number, I sent an email to Baboo asking whether it would be possible to have seats allocated anyway. I got a reply stating that this could only be done by paying an additional fee, upon which I declined.
The day of the trip arrived and I made my way to Vienna’s Schwechat airport for the 09.15 departure. I had checked the Geneva airport website before leaving home to see if the aircraft had left on time, which it had. Travelling with hand luggage only, check-in was literally done in a couple of seconds and I received a boarding pass with seat 14A allocated to me. I had requested a seat on the left-hand side of the aircraft to be able to see the Alps en-route.
As Switzerland is a non-EU and thus non-Schengen country I had to pass passport control and made my way to gate A15, which is a bus gate. The aircraft was parked on the western end of the apron, which made for a long and always interesting ride across the airport grounds. As an EVA Air A330 rolled in to the gate after arriving from Bangkok, I fondly remembered my trip with this nice airline from Bangkok to Los Angeles in business class.
23 October 2008
Baboo flight BB 404
VIE-GVA
09.15-10.50
Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 HB-JQB
The long turboprop and its crew stood ready to receive the very light load of passengers, only 30 or so, and boarding was completed in no-time. My pilot bag wouldn’t fit in the small overhead lockers but as there was more than plenty space, I placed it on the floor in the row in front of me. Push back and engine start, and off we went. It had been ages since my last flight on a turbo-prop, and my last trip with a Dash 8, albeit a Q300, had been in June 2005. The sound of the engine and spinning propellers was remarkably similar to the Q300’s despite having a six-bladed prop instead of a four-bladed one. While having enjoyed this first flight on the modern Q400, I still believe that the older Fokker 50 is more silent in the cabin and also vibrates less.
Take-off was from runway 29, soon after which we climbed through the clouds and into the sunlight. The entire trip over Austria and the southern part of Germany was over a thick layer of clouds, only to break up when we neared the “Bodensee” (Lake Constance) on the Swiss-Austrian-German border.
The rather busy flowerpower design on the Q400's engine. A bit weird maybe, but so is the airline's name!
The two flight attendants, one female, one male, were professional and courteous – and of course didn’t have much to do. They had handed out little bottles of Evian water before take-off, which I found a very good idea, and after reaching cruising altitude started the mini-breakfast service consisting of a piece of pastry with coffee or tea. The coffee was served in either a small or large cup, which is a nice detail. After finishing their first round, they returned to offer a second piece of pastry. So the catering was nothing really fancy but nevertheless very adequate for this flight, and I liked the details like the bottle of water and the choice of coffee cups.
The announcements by the Captain were clear and crisp, and he made them in French, English and German without any noticeable accent which revealed what his mother tongue was. We started descent into Geneva; unfortunately it was now overcast again, covering Lake Geneva, but the majestic Alps were clearly visible as the mountain tops were sticking out like islands in a sea of cotton. We flew a right downwind and turned back for landing on runway 05.
After my meeting near the airport, I had time to do some spotting and found a good location near the runway 05 threshold. From here I had a good view of aircraft on final approach as well as planes lining up for departure, and the bizzjet apron near the TAG Aviation and Jet Aviation facilities. Absolute highlight for me was to see the private Boeing 767 registered as VP-BKS, which had just been pushed back for departure as I arrived at the spotting spot.
This beauty used to fly for Gulf Air and is now a regular visitor in Geneva
GVA is one of easyJet's main hubs; the airline operates both Swiss and UK registered aircraft here
After an hour or two I made my way back to the terminal on foot, checked in, took some pictures of the terminal interior, passed passport control and after a brief visit to the shops went to the gate, which was at one of the satellite terminals. My ride back home was waiting there: a brand-new Embraer E190. Finally I got to fly on one of these as well after hearing many good stories about them, and as it turned out, not without reason.
23 October 2008
Baboo flight BB 407
GVA-VIE
18.15-20.00
Embraer E190 HB-JQE
One thing that struck me as being a bit odd was the published schedule for today’s flights, with 1 hour 35 minutes for the VIE-GVA leg on the Q400 and 1 hour 45 minutes for GVA-VIE with the E190. First of all you would expect the westbound flight to take longer, and besides that, if the westbound on the Q400 is planned with 1.35 then there is no way the eastbound with a regional jet would normally take 10 minutes longer. In this case, the actual flight time in the morning had been 1 hour and 40 minutes, and the flight time back to Vienna was 1 hour 20. But in the end we left delayed out of Geneva and landed according to schedule in Schwechat.
We walked to the aircraft and I settled in into my comfortable seat 7A. My pilot bag just about fitted into the overhead locker. The cabin of this great little jet looks very spacious and I can say that it was one of the most comfortable flights I ever had in economy class. Nice seat, plenty of legroom and nice big windows. They even have PTV screens, although they are not being used (yet). Not that it would be so important to show a movie on such a short flight but it is always nice to have a moving display to follow the flight’s progress.
Tonight’s flight had no less than four flight attendants on board, one of whom I think was a purser in training. We silently taxied to runway 05, followed by a powerful take-off.
The in-flight service was extremely good: if I counted correctly, the F/A came to offer something six times during the one hour or so between reaching cruising altitude and starting descent. First of all there was the bottle of water before take-off. The food was offered in steps, consisting of two triangle sandwiches, a pack of delicious breadsticks, a little “Mediterranean snack pot” with olives, chick peas, tomato and feta cheese (of which I was offered two) and a strawberry/vanilla yoghurt. Although the individual portions were small, getting them spread out during the flight made it look more… and I guess it gave the flight attendants something to do as well, considering there were only 30 or so passengers on this flight as well.
This service actually reminded me of Air Nostrum’s, the best regional airline I’ve ever been on. Air Nostrum calls its service “Regional Business Class” and offers a similar standard of in-flight catering on a trip lasting around an hour.
The whole experience was just excellent, except maybe for the hard landing… but I guess the pilots are still getting used to the Embraer jet
Getting off the plane I sincerely thanked the crew for the nice flight; the "real" purser was stood next to the Captain at the cockpit entrance, while the purser in training was standing outside on the stairs to say goodbye.
I truly hope for the sake of Baboo that passenger loads in general will be healthy enough for them to survive and, coming to think of it, that people won’t be put off by their name. Granted, it’s funny and original, but it wouldn’t surprise me if some people would hesitate to fly with them because of the name. Am I correct by saying that Baboo is the name of the founder’s dog? Anyway, this concluded a very enjoyable trip which I hope to be able to experience again soon.
