A new airline & aircraft type in my books from Europe!
https://youtu.be/3gSVbUxlCIo
Airbus A320-NEO from Scandinavian Airlines!
So I was doing a trip to New York from Stockholm for a 3 day trip. I had a spare day to position to Stockholm and have a day trip there and I weighed my option!
BA- Already flying BA 747 & 767 between JFK & ARN coming back. So not to worried on flying them.
NAS- Not flown in 2 years, but wouldn't be that much different and would I really want to go to London Gatwick?
easyJet- Already had a trip booked to Luxembourg so no need to utilise their LTN-ARN rotation.
SAS- Never flown them before, can fly from my local LHR, can fly A320-NEO & Boeing 737-NG! Great mix of flight times. Only £116 for 3 flights (LHR-ARN/ARN-OSL-LHR) PERFECT!
Scandinavian Airlines got the winning vote!
So the day arrived and I was only taking a big back pack so I didn't have to pay extra for luggage or check in my bags. So I raced through T2 at LHR straight to my flight which was wrapping boarding as I got there. It was a quiet flight roughly 65% full for a PAX load. So I hurried onto the plane to avoid holding everyone else up!
I took my pre-reserved seat 15A. Middle of the wing with a view of the huge A32N engine!
One of the things I liked about the A320-NEO was the addition of the USB Power point in the seats. It was a small but essential inclusion into the new SAS fleet.
It was a 06:30am flight so we pushed back, taxied to our runway which was 27L, right by T2 and departed promptly in a 15 minute period.
The Airbus powered down the runway and shot into the sky not even half-way down the runway darting into the sky like a little rocket. Probably emphasised by the low passenger count and the all new powerful engines on the A32N.
We climbed through the clouds and it appeared we had a direct climb to our cruising altitude as we didn't seem to stop climbing through the thick & low clouds.
For the service, SAS offers a buy on board menu along with complimentary water, tea and coffee (like Nordic rival Finnair- please take note IAG!).
I chose to pre-order a meal option as my flight was over 1 hour & 20 minutes and for £8 I bought the Continental cold Breakfast. It was worth the money as far as I was concerned.
It included a Granola cereal & yogurt with a drink (I went with Orange Juice) cheese & ham along with a roll accompanied with a small jam pot.
The flight went smoothly, as I had a row to myself, I got up to the back of the plane to get a shot of the A32N cabin. I chatted to the London based crew about their thoughts on the new aircraft. They seemed to like it and think its a good ride as a passenger.
Descending through cloud, we landed in Stockholm on time! It was snowy in Sweden that day, which wouldn't be uncommon in early March.
Parking next to a TUI Nordic Boeing 767, I exited the plane with a visit to the flight deck to round off my first A320-NEO flight. No difference to the layout compared to the previous model. Thus making commonality & training easier on the airlines for pilots switching models, all though the SAS Boeing 737 pilots will probably need more training going from Boeing to Airbus.
Non the less, it was a great introduction to SAS & the Airbus A320-NEO!
Thanks for this FR.
I didn't know SK had LHR based crew. Do they speak swedish?
The breakfast is indeed good alue for money, which is unlike the rest of the BoB that is pretty expensive.
I don't think so. One did but he was a Swedish based crew before moving to LHR. They are part of the new SAS Ireland branch which is basing crews in Spain and London. Hence the Irish reg planes. Trying to up Norwegian, though unlike NAX they are only flying to Scandinavia not around the rest of Europe.