Round The World and other travels

Flight Log 1: 4U363

Edinburgh (EDI) - Cologne / Bonn (CGN)

ABOVE: Germanwings Airbus A319 arriving at a rather grey-looking Edinburgh Airport

Germanwings is a Cologne-based low-cost carrier which is now wholly owned by Lufthansa. In 2013, Lufthansa started a major programme of route transfers which when complete, would mean that all its short-haul flights not serving either of its major hubs at Frankfurt and Munich would be operated by Germanwings. However the Edinburgh route predated that decision, having been lauched several years previously by Germanwings itself. My own first experience of the airline had come just 32 days earlier, flying the same sector, so I had a good idea what to expect this time around.

Following late arrival of the aircraft, boarding didn't get underway until 1220, so that things were not looking good for an on-time departure. There was a light drizzle as I made my way across the tarmac to the aircraft steps, but at least it wasn't cold. I settled quickly and easily into 1A confirming that, as on my one previous flight, the A319 was fitted with Lufthansa's ultra-slim Recaro seating. The standard of cabin presentation also matched Lufthansa mainline: everything was spotless. The captain announced that following take-off towards the southwest, the initial route would be towards Newcastle and then down the east coast of England. Pushback came 11 minutes behind schedule and a further 11 minutes saw us airborne.

When the cabin crew were released from their seats, passengers who had booked the so-called 'SMART' fare were given a complimentary catering pack containing a pastrami sandwich, a 0.2L bottle of water and a single, sugar-free boiled sweet, supposedly tasting of forest berries. I asked for an apple juice when the drinks trolley followed behind. Enquiring whether it might be possible to have a coffee as well, I was told that only one drink was included - further confirmation that minimalism was the order of the day in this implementation of complimentary short-haul catering. Although it would be considered heresy by many frequent flyers, I sometimes wonder whether the easyJet approach to in-flight catering on short hops might actually be the best one: you can have whatever you want, as long as you're prepared to put your hand in your pocket and pay for it.

The captain gave the usual progress update as we crossed the North Sea at 33,000ft, informing us that the remaining route would be via Amsterdam and Düsseldorf, with an optimistic-sounding expected time of arrival of 3pm. Local weather was a pleasant-sounding 24C with only a few scattered clouds. I reflected that the flight so far had been reasonably civilised, apart from three very loud men in 1D/E/F: even at this hour, they appeared to have sunk a few beers already. (As someone who has zero interest in football, I would only find out later that Scotland and Germany were due to play that weekend and that the fixture was attracting large numbers of fans.)

I overheard a mildly interesting snippet of conversation among the cabin crew, concerning use of the English language: one crew member mentioned to a colleague that she was getting some strange reactions from passengers when she went round with a bin bag asking "Any trash here?" The other suggested that when speaking to British people, 'rubbish' was probably a better choice of word. Oh dear, I hope nobody had been taking it personally!

Considering the late departure from Edinburgh, we did well to touch down at Cologne/Bonn at 1509 in the pleasant afternoon sunshine. After performing a U-turn on the runway and backtracking as required, our arrival at the gate was a mere three minutes down on the schedule.

Date: Fri 05 Sep 2014

Aircraft: Airbus A319

Scheduled dep: 1225

Actual departure: 1236

Scheduled arrival: 1510

Actual arrival: 1513

Cabin: Economy

Seat: 1A

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