introduction + trip information
Welcome to the newest installment of my Winter 2018-2019 trip back to the Big Apple. When last we saw each other, I had just arrived in Frankfurt from an Austrian flight from Innsbruck. Now, it's time for me to catch my connecting flight, LX1073 to Zürich. As a reminder, here's the itinerary of this trip:
Flight routing
- 1
- 2LX1073 - Economy - Frankfurt → Zurich - Airbus A220-100
- 3
- 4
- 5
frankfurt airport (fra)
Since we arrived at a remote stand, all the passengers had to be bussed to the terminal. I love getting bussed in Frankfurt, because you get to drive past a ton of large aircraft, like this Lufthansa Boeing 747-400 (D-ABVP), off to Dubai.
After a long bus ride, we were dropped off somewhere in Terminal 1. While Frankfurt is generally a nice airport, there are certainly parts worth skipping, like this one
lufthansa business lounge a26
I decided to visit what I believe is the nicest Lufthansa Business Lounge in Frankfurt. It is located one floor up gate A26 and is only for Schengen passengers.
What makes this Lounge so nice is that it used to be a First Class lounge, but for some reason was turned into a Business Class lounge. Even though it doesn't have à la carte dining or a full buffet, a lot of the lounge is unchanged, for example, the decor and color is consistent with First Class lounges; there are sleeping rooms and lockers and; the old shower rooms still have bathtubs!
There are also some great views, too. Here's an Middle Eastern Airlines A330-200 (OD-MEC) off to Beirut.
The buffet was packed, but I did manage to grab a picture of the hot food on offer. It was Goulash with rice.
Tracking my inbound flight.
My aircraft arriving. The registration was HB-JBG, a 1.9-year old Airbus A220-100, delivered to SWISS on April 3rd, 2017.
boarding + initial impressions
I decided to leave the lounge and hang out in the gate area until boarding.
Terminal 1 was quite empty around the time of my flight's departure, apart from a few Lufthansa widebodies and an A321.
The A220 really is a beautiful aircraft!
Just a few minutes later, boarding commenced.
A look at the fuselage.
And the door.
Pretty good legroom at my seat, but I forgot to put my coat in the overhead locker, so that took away from my legroom. Oops.
A clean and relatively large tray table.
Contents of the seatpocket: shopping magazine, safety card, and the SWISS Magazine.
And the coolest feature of the A220: the mini TVs on the PSU.
swiss 1073 - frankfurt to zurich
Shortly after boarding finished, Captain Michel and the purser made their welcome announcements. A flight time of 35 minutes was announced.
A good view of the wing from my seat.
A few minutes later, the safety video was screened.
Pushback.
Engine start.
Flaps 2 for takeoff.
Aerologic Boeing 777F.
Holding short of Runway 18.
Lufthansa CityLine Embraer 190 (D-AECC 'Lutherstadt Eisleben') off to Cluj-Napoca as LH1472.
And behind us, a Pegasus A320 (TC-DCM) off to Istanbul-Sabiha Gökçen.
departure from frankfurt
Our turn to takeoff.
V1.
Rotate.
Positive Rate, Gear Up. And some nice condensation on the wing.
Tschüß Frankfurt!
Cabin after departure.
Climbing.
And already reaching our cruising altitude of 21,000 feet.
Our sunlit winglet.
mid-flight
Because of the short flight time, only beverages were offered. I got a bottle of water.
Spent a grand total of 4 minutes at 21,000 feet before commencing our descent.
Detail on the seat cover.
arrival into zurich
Reducing our speed.
And starting our very bumpy approach.
We hit such a big bump, a few people screamed. I thought it was fun, though.
Fighting a bit of a crosswind.
Almost down.
Firm landing on Runway 14.
On the ground after 29 minutes in the air, making this my all time shortest flight.
Exiting the runway.
Crossing Runway 28.
The famous Zürich Airport photo.
Pulling into our gate as an Air Serbia A320 pushes back.
Deplaning with one last look of the cabin. I love the windows on this plane!
And now off to catch my connecting SWISS flight to Newark.
routing of lx1073
doobie-doobie
Hi Newyorker and thanks for sharing your second report on FlightReport,
- I remember the time where this lounge was the non-Schengen A Senator & First Class lounge back before the terminal expansion. It has really nice views and the location is much more better than the current Senator Lounges both in Schengen and Non-Schengen. I haven't had the opportunity to use the First Class facilities in that location but I would try on my next Schengen flight from FRA.
- I don't understand why LH wants most Non-Schengen operations to be handled from Terminal 1B and most of the Schengen flights use remote gates. That's why there terminal seemed empty.
- Didn't they offer Swiss chocolate?
Once again for letting me to discover the A220 that I haven't able to flown yet and sharing this report.
Hope to see you in the next part of the series.
Thanks for reading, ISTFlyer!
Yes, I do agree that this lounge is nicer than the Senator Lounges at the airport. The decor is nicer, and it is smaller, which makes it more intimate.
That's a question I've been wondering for a long time! Especially in such rainy weather conditions.
They absolutely did, but instead of passing around the basket of chocolates before the landing, they gave us the chocolate as we boarded. I forgot to take a photo because I ate it right away :)
Thanks for stopping by!
This 2nd report clearly shows that you have a natural knack for flight-reporting, nice job!
Good thing, since there's a huge change of getting bussed when flying another airline than LH at FRA, lol
Love the look of the A220 (still feels weird to call it that though), and the cabin seems so spacious, modern, and fresh. If I'm not mistaken, the Y seats are the widest of any narrowbody (or maybe right about the same as E-jets, which I also love). I can't wait to try an A220 here in North America now that DL has started flying them!
Like ISTFlyer, I'm also wondering where the SWISS-branded chocolate is?
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for reading, Kévin!
You're too kind! :)
It does! Even the Captain welcomed us on board 'this SWISS Bombardier C-Series'.
It certainly feels like that! I was surprised at how much space I had in Y.
I hope I get to fly DL's A220 soon! Luckily for me, they'll be flown out of my two US bases: NY and Seattle. I'm a die-hard United guy, but maybe, just once, I'll cheat on them to fly Delta's new bird.
I hope to see you in part 3! :)
Hah, I hear you. I'm pretty senselessly loyal to AA/oneworld, but I used to be a mostly Delta flyer so I'll have no problem cheating on AA to fly mama Delta's new A220 lol
I do also agree that mini-overhead IFE is pretty cool for small A220!