Trip report : SXF with easyJet

[airazurxtror]

Early this year, I had planned to go and see the new terminal at Berlin, due to open on the 3d of July - target missed by some 9 months ! Next time, I'll wait for the official opening to be actually completed before trying again.
Anyway, I had the booking ( cost me nearly 72,98 euros, not that cheap) and I took the EZY flight of yesterday to good old Schoenefeld (SXF).

Scheduled : BRU 09.00 - SXF 10.25
Actual : push-back 08.52; take-off 09.01 - landing 10.07
EasyJet A319 G-EZAU

My last trip to SXF had been just one year ago; the gate had been the A60, at the end of that interminable pier A, boarding via an air bridge.
This time, it was A33, at the other end of pier A, but much nearer and at ground level. No air-bridge but on foot to the aircraft by a walkway marked by blue-white-red concrete blocks. Making the boarding much easier and faster, by the two doors instead of one only.
My appreciation of BRU airport took a sharp turn upwards ! It seems that BRU at last recognizes the needs of the LCC carriers and adapts to them. Air-bridge is anathema to LCC customers, as it considerably slows the flow in/out of the aircraft. Not to mention the added cost to the carrier, thus to the price of the ticket.
Clouds below, during the whole flight, until far into the approach to SXF.
4 members of cabin crew, greeting the passengers at the door, polite and smiling during the flight - that goes without saying. 2 announcements from the flight deck : before departure and in-flight.

Scheduled : SXF 17.00 - BRU 18.30.
Actual : push-back 16.55 - take-off 17.45 - landing 18.51
EasyJet A319 G-EZPG

Terminal B, gate 59 at Berlin Schoenefeld; boarding a bit early, push-back and then an announcement from the pilot : for lack of a slot, it would be 30-35 minutes before he would be allowed to start the engines.
In fact, it was nearer 45 minutes before we moved to the runway. The passengers were not happy about it, of course, but there was no audible reaction during the long wait (cabin air conditioned by the APU, of course). Some would have liked to buy a beer or something else to drink, but it was not possible until airborne. I then bought for 3 euros a dark and hot liquid which they call coffee - not better than Ryanair's !
As regards the crew : same remarks as for the outbound flight. The crew know what their job is, and they do it exactly : what more do you need ?
A normal flight to Brussels via south of Hannover, Paderborn, Dusseldorf, Maastricht and Brussels.

Same aircraft stand as in the morning, with a short walk to the gate and on to the 19.29 bus 12 bound for Schuman !

[regi]

I then bought for 3 euros a dark and hot liquid which they call coffee - not better than Ryanair's !

Same aircraft stand as in the morning, with a short walk to the gate and on to the 19.29 bus 12 bound for Schuman !

Nice report. I noticed that you needed 38 minutes between touch down and catch the bus at 19h29. That is already pretty fast. But do you mean you got the bus at 19h29 or you were standing at the bus stand at 19h29 ? OK, small detail, but it is even more confirming that a general complaint about Brussels ( long walks/ connecting ) is based on wrong impressions.

Too bad that a 3€ coffee hardly deserves the name. Just brainstorming: if they would cooperate with a well known coffee manufacturer, e.g Illy or Douwe Egberts, they could promote it and get more money from it. I wonder if Starbucks would be able/willing to engineer a product that could be sold in the air.
Btw, Illy sells already an energy drink on board of Air Tran Airways.
http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/dyna ... where.html
CORRECTION!!! just read that Starbucks sells its product on.. Easyjet's flights
http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/5/22/ ... +the+Skies
So was it this you were referring to?
If so, than I must say it is a terrible job of both companies to sell a world known brand below expected quality for a too high price.

[sn26567]

Excellent report. Thanks!

Did you have the opportunity to see the buildings of the new BER airport and check why they could not be opened on time?

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

While taxiing from/to Schonëfeld you'll have a great view on BER on the left side of the plane (going out )..
At least I had last year with 4U to MST .
BER even then looked almost ready..
As the problems where inside the buildings I think airazur had more a thing of ' for what didn't BER open,OMG Dam**** )

Hope on a smaller or a bigger delay next year because the BER opening weekend I'm 'on call' ..

Bad Starbucks coffee on an EZY flight ? Damn..
Better had one before boarding

Nice report, did you loved also the plane taxing in front of your nose while waiting for boarding..
Loved that at SXF..

Greetz..

CX-B
Airazur : Already waiting for your 4U report from BRU to Stuttgart

[airazurxtror]

Did you have the opportunity to see the buildings of the new BER airport and check why they could not be opened on time?

Seen from the runway, the terminal appear to be finished - no visible outside works in progress (very square buildings, no Calatrava style here !).
They say that the delay is caused by the fire-fighting system not being operational. Does it need nine months to be completed ? It seems a bit strange.

[Stij]

Seen from the runway, the terminal appear to be finished - no visible outside works in progress (very square buildings, no Calatrava style here !).

Having been inside regurarly (last tme was last month) I can confirm... it won't open any earlier, there's still a lot of work to be done in the technics field.

On the other hand, in Berlin's defence: when we Belgians make fun of German punctuallity by being so proud that the A pier was opened punctually we forget that that was "just" a gate aera with a few shops. I wonder if the B-Pier was opened in time.

However, it will be a very spacious airport with a lot of natural materials like wood and natural stone. Also I experienced a lot of natural light. The public transport connections to the city centre will be very good and fast. In fact so good the taxi drivers are afraid.

Small inside joke: the paving is different in the Easyjet gate area because it had to be cheaper... in the end it costed more than the natural stone in the Lufthansa and Air Berlin gate area's! It's kind of like a LCC ticket when you add all the luggage and the surcharges. Just kidding Airazurxtror!

Cheers,

Stij

[Homo Aeroportus]

Hi Stij,

For once I will have to disagree with you.
The A Pier at BRU was no small project. It was much more than “just a few gates and shops” with its 750 m long and 31 contact gates with boarding bridges.
Agreed, the A Pier did not include a main terminal building with check-in facilities but the size of the project is no excuse for such a flop as seen at BER.
This is just poor planning management. Come on, with 4 weeks to go you “discover” that you still have for 9 months worth of work ???

This means they never had the situation under control. Didn’t know where they were on the roadmap and what remained to be done.
Even a real bad "Houston, we have a problem" should not lead to such a delay when you have a proper planning with specific milestones purposely designed for getting these bugs out soon enough. You don’t wait for the window and floor cleaning phase to start making stability checks of the building foundations, so what actually went so badly wrong at BER?
This fire detection weakness seems to be the typical “we care for your safety” excuse.
Does anyone has more info as to what excatly is the cause for this flop? Is this a departure from initial design of terminal operations that called for major changes?
I've read something about this tent structure to accomodate overflow traffic? Kinda odd for a new airport to be short of capacity on day 1.

As to BRU, the on-time opening of the A Pier was thanks to careful planning, and to some degree the kind insistence of Pierre Klees, aka Papa Kilo, for going out butt kicking and head chopping if the date wasn’t met.
This project was a TV/JV involving 5 or 6 contractors and a bunch of subs, yet the promised date was met, although the last night was a short one for a number of us indeed.


H.A.

[Stij]

Hi Homo Aeroportus,

For once, I'll take that as a compliment!
Of course I didn't want to say the A Pier was easy or peanuts, just that BER is a bit bigger and covers every aspect of airport building there is, both land and airside.

Cheers,

Stij

[kerwin]

Excellent report.
help me a lot.
thanks for posting this!