#66 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings.
1597 reviews
Hello Dear Reader,
This is the report of flight LH1168 from Frankfurt International Airport (IATA: FRA - ICAO: EDDF) to Lisbon - Humberto Delgado International Airport (IATA: LIS - ICAO: LPPT) with Lufthansa (IATA: LH - ICAO: DLH), member of Star Alliance, in Business class, during the Coronavirus, on May/21st 2020.
It was founded in Jan/1953 and is based at Frankfurt and Munich Airports.
Currently has 300 airplanes, with an average age of xxx, operating routes to 220.
The entire group (Austrian Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines, Brussels Airlines, and Eurowings) has over 700 aircraft and are one of the largest airlines in the world.
The entire group reported last year a revenue of 36 400 million Euros, 1 117 315 flights (1,2% increase compared with 2018), 145 190 000 passengers (more 2,3%) and a load factor of 82,5% (1% more occupation than in 2018). The group last year had a total of 138 353 employees.
On 19 March 2020 Lufthansa cancelled 95 percent of all flights due to a travel ban because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
From that date until end of May, LH always ensured 1 daily flight operated by an Airbus A320 Neo or an Airbus A321 (depending on the flight load). Lisbon was the only city in Portugal LH was flying but from June the flights to Porto will start and a 2nd service to Lisbon will be added.
Apart from the virus the air connections with the most important cities in Europe were always assured via its hub in Frankfurt.
Check my video with the full flight report:
Frankfurt Airport, located 12km southwest of the city, 4 runways, is the 4th busiest airport in the Europe and the 13th in the world. There are 2 main passenger Terminals: T1 for Lufthansa, Air Malta, Alitalia, Bulgaria Air, Iran Air, MEA, Oman Air and Tunisair. The T2 is used by all the other airlines. Last year recorded 70,5 million passengers (an increase 1,5% compared with 2018), 513 912 movements (more 0,4%) and 2,1 million tonnes of cargo (a decrease of 4%). In April, 188 078 passengers were registered (a decrease of 97% compared with Apr/2019), 6 512 movements (less 85%) and 141 thousand tonnes of cargo (-21%).
All arriving passengers at FRA are transferred by bus to the bus gate where a control check is made. Initially the passengers are split between connections to Non-Schengen destinations and other. I flew previously from Vienna and had this connection to Lisbon, so followed the signs to Schengen and was directed to the passport control, where the officer asked me for my destination and plane ticket.
Luckily I checked-in via the phone for Lisbon and was able to show him the ticket, because was not possible to do it at VIE. There, was explained me due to the entry restrictions for passengers in Germany, only if I would have a medical report was possible to check me in to Lisbon, otherwise, I had to wait to arrive at FRA and then make the check-in After this I accessed the luggage livery area and the main exit afterwards.
Unfortunately with this restrictions, the connecting passengers cannot directly go to gates A, and is needed to access the main departure hall and the security check again, which is still doable because there not many passengers and the lines at the security are not that long and the flights are only operating to gate A26.
I was at the public arrivals area 10 minutes after arriving at gate, and took another 5 minutes to pass the security screening. Some small store as well bakeries/cafes were opened, but all the lounges and bigger stores were closed.
The boarding gate for this flight was the A21 located located in the end of the terminal.
The airplane from the outbound flight (Zurich) arrived at 12h00.
The schedule boarding time was at 12h45 but only started at 13h15 and the delay wasn’t announced.
45 minutes before the actual boarding, most of the passengers were already standing near the gate.
The boarding started with Business Class and Gold Card members followed by Economy Class.
This flight was operated by Airbus A321-271 Neo, Registration D-AIEC, production number 8814, with 0,8 years old and named Cottbus (a city in northeast of Germany). I was seated at 2A and after departure swapped to 3F in Business Class.
On this flight the Business Class was until row 5 (configuration 2-2, with the middle seat blocked for more space to the passengers) and the rest of the airplane with the Economy Class. For Business Class passengers, the toilet was located in the front, after the cockpit, and for Economy there was one before the door 3 RH and another 2 on the back of the airplane. A full galley was also located on the back and in the front with 2 half galleys.
This A321, had the new configuration from Airbus, instead of the typical emergency doors 2 (before wing) had 4 over wing exits. This configuration basically allows the airlines to introduce another row in the cabin, because the corridor and a jump seat for the door was suppressed. In case of LH, the maximum capacity of this A321 Neo is 215 passengers and the A321 Ceo is 205 and doesn’t have a toilet near door 3
In this configuration with 5 business class rows, the total capacity is 205: 20 passengers in C and 185 in Y.
The flight, initially scheduled to be operated by an Airbus A320, was changed for an Airbus A321 to increase its capacity. 50% of the capacity in Business (with 10 passengers) and only 8 empty seats in Economy, 177 passengers and a capacity of 96%. The total flight load was 91%.
Welcoming the passengers was the purser and another cc which handed over a leaflet with the information for entering and staying in Portugal.
The aircraft pushed-back 13h43 and taxied to the runway 07C.
The actual departure time was at 13h55, 40 minutes after scheduled departure (at 13h15)
The wind, reported at Frankfurt, was calm (8km/h) variable between North to Southeast, a visibility more than 10km, few clouds at 1500m, a ground temperature of 23 degrees Celsius, dew point of 10, atmospheric pressure of 1021 hPa and no changes of weather expected.
10 min after departure, a meal was served and was the exact same meal as on the previous flight. For a 3 hours flight it could be much more and also LH could have a different dish for the afternoon departures, as most of its passengers are connecting in FRA.
In economy class the crew handed over a sandwich and a water.
The crew also offered red wine and afterwards coffee for the business class passengers
View of the Business Class
Economy Class and the last pic from the seat 2A (Business Class)
At 15h08 the airplane started the descent and the crew prepared the cabin for arrival.
The aircraft landed on Runway 03 of Lisbon Airport, after performing one of the most beautiful approaches, flying west of Lisbon, then turning over the beach (south of Lisbon), then the Tagus River and the April/25th Bridge (inspired on the S. Francisco Golden Bridge) and over the city of Lisbon.
The touchdown was at 15h30, 15 minutes after scheduled arrived (at 15h15).
The wind, observed in Lisbon around the landing time was variable between South and North, blowing at 20 km/h, no clouds, a air temperature of 23 degrees Celsius, dew point of 14 and an atmospheric pressure of 1021 hPa.
I taxied to the stand 115 and arrived there 6 minutes later.
The actual flight time was 2h35 and block time 2h53.
Lisbon Airport, located in the city and only 5km north of the city center, has 2 departing terminals: T2 for low cost and T1 for all the others. The arrivals are always made at Terminal 1, due to marketing reasons, as the passengers transferred by bus from the airplane have to walk through all the restaurants and duty free stores to get to the exit. Due to reduction of the traffic the T2 is closed.
Lisbon has 2 runways, but the shortest (17-35) was deactivated a couple of years ago and now is used as parking position for the grounded airplanes.
Most of TAP fleet is parked in Lisbon and is shocking to see all the aircraft grounded. Last year, 2019, was the 20th largest airport in Europe & a gateway to South America, carried 31,2 million passengers (7,4% increase compared with 2018) and 217.703 movements (an increase of 1,9%).
Last Month (April/2020) 2 206 flights passed in Lisbon, 88% reduction compared with the 18,1k flights on April/2019.
The disembark was made by Jet Bridge and this gate, S-15, is straight in front of the way to the luggage claim area.
At the exit, the police were checking the temperature via a scanner installed in the celling. I left the airport without any restriction at 15h45.
Thank you very much for browsing through my flight report, Fábio Conceição
(Data source: Airfleets.net, Wikipedia.org, Airports and Airline’s Website)
Another flight during this rough time. Some stores and cafes in Frankfurt were opened and the passengers were a bit more relaxed than other airports I have passed because some were not wearing masks. The cabin crew was very attentive and friendly, serving wine, coffee and giving chocolates, which are not part of the reduced service. The idea about the message on the fuselage of the airplane was also very nice and have to say is the first time I saw it on a commercial flight. The purser in the end of the flight also talked with all the C class passengers to excuse about the reduced service. The food was under my expectations for a 2h30 flight but still ok considering this time and also compared with the service on another airlines. The flight, in Economy Class was quite full and I start questioning about all the measures implemented by the countries... If the passengers may stay side by side for 3 hours, on a closed space, why on another places they can't if the proper measures were applied (like wearing of the mask)... Hope the confidence can be restored very soon and the countries also open their boarders.
2 Comments
The new LH cabins look much nice than the old NEK seats and it's definitely an improvement that they have USB power.
Thanks for sharing!
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