Round The World and other travels

Flight Log 1: AF1487

Edinburgh (EDI) - Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG)

This was my first flight to be branded as 'Hop!', the new Air France regional subsidiary formed in 2013 by a merger of the former Airlinair, Brit Air and Régional carriers. On the last few occasions that I had flown between Edinburgh and Paris, the route had been operated for Air France by former partner CityJet. Now, and ever with an eye (or ear) for the quirky, it occurred to me that 'Op by Hop!' sounded vaguely amusant if said with a French accent. And the Embraer 190 seemed a safe bet to be more comfortable than a densely-packed CityJet Avro.

We were five minutes late in pushing back from our stand, but it was a short taxi out to the runway. Too short, actually, as we were actually on the runway before the final cabin crew member managed to get himself strapped in. We lifted into the dark skies at 1735 and the seat belt signs were quickly turned off, only to be immediately turned back on again for a further ten minutes due to a series of mild bumps.

Cabin service turned out to be a complimentary beverage and snacks offering, not dissimilar to the contemporary British Airways equivalent. As they ran out of Gin & Tonic in Row 11, I took a white wine and accepted the sensible offer of a single ice cube in the plastic glass. A little 'Crackers' snack completed the deal. Like the public spaces in so many continental European hotels during winter, the cabin was quite ridiculously hot. I suspected that somebody had turned the heat up full while the doors were open at Edinburgh, and then had forgotten all about it.

We touched down at a chilly Charles de Gaulle at 1959 local time and arrived at Terminal 2E at 2006, a few minutes ahead of the published schedule.

(Operated by Hop!)

Date: Tue 25 Nov 2014

Aircraft: Embraer 190

Scheduled dep: 1720

Actual departure: 1725

Scheduled arrival: 2010

Actual arrival: 2006

Cabin: Economy

Seat: 12A

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