Review of Air France Hop flight from Mulhouse / Bâle to Paris in Economy

It has been a while since I published last in English, but a new addition to the Flight Report database brought me back to English language. Stay tuned for the next report that will be it ^^

 This routing is my yearly trip to Jordan, we always flew with Air France but after their retrofit to the « Smart » cabins, no ways we would endure again the ridiculous 32’’ seat pitch in Business (compared to the 34’’ before the retrofit) and the well above average service on board.

Back to the report! After being dropped off by my brother, my mother and I breeze through check in and security. The architecture of Basel Mulhouse Freiburg airport is beautiful. Not so many people today.

EAP Bale Mulhouse Fribourg

It's also pretty quiet airside, I am surprised to find a new Hudson shop at the EAP!

The travelator has been out of service for the last 3 months, this is not nice for the airport's image.

This is the new passport control zone:

SKYVIEW LOUNGE EAP

Very nice welcome at the lounge, that proudly exibitis its awarded prizes:

Before breakfast, first a small spotting session. To begin with, this privately owned 757-200:

An ATR72F and an Embraer Lineage :

 Air Contractors:

Sun Express - A320 (wet lease Avion Express) plus 738, and KLM Cityhopper's E90 behind a 738 RYR :

Easyjet is the main operator out of BSL, but we are after the morning peak departure, so not too many A/C's on the ground;

The cargo zone with an A300 and two 737's (almost hidden are a 757 FedEx and an AT7)

Time to go to check what is on offer today!

It isn't that great unfortunately, no more fresh cut cheese, the cold cuts are also gone apart from the ham. It's 9AM, very deceiving. To be honest, the buffet on the ground floor of the lounge looked much better but we only saw it when we left.
As usual, the hot offer consists of scrambled eggs, beans and chicken sausages.

The cookies are, however, a new addition to the buffet:

The ice cream freezer is empty :(

The booze is still here, however :)

My selection, it was fairly good, still missing the fresh cut cheese, though.

FIDS:

Not very busy today:

Back to the spotting as there is nothing really better to do! Voici Air Contractor is towed to maintance, Easyjet with a special livery and Avion Express ops for XQ to AYT:

EZS and U2 taking-off:

Avion Express:

KLM CityHopper:

EasyJet and HOP! ATR 72-600 :

Avion Express taking-off:

It's nice to see an A320 flying for Sun Express a pure 737 operator:

Easyjet goes as well:

And our E90 arrives, that means it is time to proceed to the boarding lounge:

THE FLIGHT

Boarding starts on time with the more and more frequent pre-boarding procedure:

Very warm welcome at the aircraft door, the cabin is the standard cabin that can be found onboard HOP's E90:

Push back, bye bye EAP!

We taxi behind  the 757, see again the AT7-F and then the fire station with the F27 that is used for training:

Off we go!

This is the standard catering onboard domestic flights in France, together with the really nice AF press app:

Always nice to be above the clouds!

In no time we are already descending towards CDG:

Our path crosses the one of this beautiful 788 KQ :

A last fuselage shoot: