Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: American Double 2014
Flight Log 2: BA458
London Heathrow (LHR) - Madrid (MAD)
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| ABOVE: British Airways Airbus A320 newly arrived in Madrid | |
I had come into remote stand 524 the previous evening and now, with G-EUXM still parked next door, I was leaving from 525. Today's Airbus A320, G-EUYF, had already been converted to the new short-haul cabin featuring Pinnacle seats, and as per previous experiences it looked stylish, but lacking in space. The flight was packed, so presumably BA was turning those extra seats that they had crammed in into a positive impact on the bottom line.
We pushed back just three minutes after the scheduled time, and despite a relatively long taxi eastwards past the new Terminal 2, we managed to keep rolling, pausing only upon entry to runway 27L to await take-off clearance.
The breakfast pack in the Euro Traveller cabin contained a small carton of orange juice and a croissant filled with bacon and 'tomato mayonnaise', the latter looking to me remarkably like ketchup. I supplemented this meagre offering with a coffee and some apple juice from the drinks trolley. It appeared to be a sunny but hazy morning as we progressed southwards down the west coast of France, eventually within sight of Bordeaux and then Biarritz. Our course then took us across the Pyrenees as we headed directly for Pamplona on the Spanish side.
By 1015 we were well into the descent, passing through 28,000ft. The flight deck announcement continued to inform us that we were expecting to fly past the airport and make a series of turns to come back and land towards the northwest on runway 32. It was a lovely, sunny morning in Madrid with a temperature of 15C; we had 25mins of flying time left and this would be followed by a ten-minute taxi. In the event we were on the ground by 1037 local time and on stand five minutes later, both events occurring ahead of the prediction and comfortably within the schedule.
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| Date: Fri 31 Oct 2014 |
| Aircraft: Airbus A320 |
| Scheduled dep: 0725 |
| Actual departure: 0728 |
| Scheduled arrival: 1050 |
| Actual arrival: 1042 |
| Cabin: Euro Traveller (Economy) |
| Seat: 7F |