Review of Lufthansa CityLine flight Zurich → Munich in Economy

Goodday,

While I'm usually off on weekends, I had to travel to Zurich for a dinner meeting (not the worst to be honest) with one of our clients and decided to book a flight with Lufthansa as they offered good rates on such short notice. It also meant that I'm finally getting to experience a flight on an Airbus A220-300 and a Mitsubishi Canadair CRJ900 of Swiss and Lufthansa Cityline as I took some detour on the way back to Amsterdam the next day.

See the itinerary I booked below.

Flight to Munich

After my meeting done the previous night and having had a splendid night at the Radisson Blu Hotel Zurich Airport, which is a hotel I would highly recommend with a beautiful wine tower, it was time for me to return to Amsterdam with a detour via Munich and Frankfurt with Lufthansa. It would even be my first CRJ-900 flight as I'm completely new to this aircraft.

Upon exiting the hotel, the signs are pretty clear what to follow if you are departing.

Probably the most difficult decision here is to choose between the escalator as one leads to the check in hall, while the other leads to the arrival hall, but yet it is very quiet here at the moment.

To my surprise I actually took the correct escalator at first try, but ended up in a quiet departure hall with little action. All shops were open at the moment and not that I needed it as I traveled light and had my boarding passes already, but the check in counters of all airlines had no ques…. Also considering the two large posters of a watch, it is pretty  clear that Swiss people take their watches seriously.

Security was a breeze with no waiting lines and it took me less than two minutes to clear. Probably a bit sooner if I didn't have a personal struggle with my own belt. Despite most shops being open already, the terminal on airside was very deserted with little to no action.

Definitely a view I could appreciate anyday and wished more airports would be more friendly to spot aircraft.

An Airbus A321 (HB-IOH) almost ready for it's departure to Porto (OPO), Portugal as LX 2068. 

Shortly after the departure of HB-IOH, the smaller brother (A320, HB-IJO) in a Star Alliance Livery was brought in by  tow truck who would follow the same path as his bigger brother about five hours later and would therefore depart to Porto (OPO) too as LX 2066.

This Airbus A220-300 (HB-JCF) was firing up for it's departure to Bucharest (OTP) as LX 1884.  A very sleek and neat aircraft.

The next contender who presented itself for a departure was the first non-swiss aircraft for the day (while technically it is still Swiss). This Airbus A330-300 (HB-JHR) of Edelweiss Air was on for it's departure to Heraklion (HER) as WK 348. Still an airline I would love to try out.

Probably the rarest bird I've seen and the last before heading to my gate is this little A319 (HB-JOJ) of Chair Airlines who's being pushed back for it's departure to Pristina (PRN), Kosovo as GM 6034. Though I'm still curious to what the management must have thought to come up with such a name… Probably it is meant to be read as CH Air with CH being the code for Switzerland, but still….

Boarding started on time for today's flight with no announcements made. The sole ground attendant was doing his best, but a lot of faulty bar codes made him grab to his computer way too often, while Zurich Airport made sure to have sufficient staff to point passengers to put their face mask on before entering the bus. I counted at least four.

Today's flight would be performed by D-ACNP, a 9.7 year old Mitsubishi Canadair CRJ-900 named after the German city of Hattersheim. The specific aircraft was delivered to Eurowings in 2010 and served that carrier for a good 7 years before joining Lufthansa Cityline in October 2017. It is powered by two General Electric CF34-8C engines and carries up to 90 passengers (in Lufthansa's cabin) in two configurations.

Upon boarding we were kindly greeted by both flight attendants who were friendly and polite during the flight, but a bit distant. We also received disinfection tissues from them upon boarding.

Upon check-in, Lufthansa had me assigned on an emergency seat which I gladly took as legroom was extremely good on the CRJ900. Definitely better than their A320s (but that will be in my final report). The downside however is that you either need to turn your neck by more than 90 degrees or hang forward to have any view from your window.

but the effort of turning your neck by more than 90% degrees or to move forward a lot was definitely awarding to see. Boarding was completed in less than five minutes with a load factor of approximately 80%.

The cabin itself was clean, showed little sign of wear and these seats were definitely a bit more pleasant than the ironing boards on Lufthansa's main fleet of A320neos. The flight attendant eventually made it to our seats and asked if we were willing to take responsibility for opening the door if it was required to do so. Obviously I was, but the flight attendant had to move the lady on seat 11F as she was not able to understand German or English. 

With a short taxi ride and no waiting line, we were the first and last to depart for a good thirty minutes. We were departing from Runway 28 (westerly direction) only six minutes past our scheduled departure with a sharp and early left turn to easterly direction, which gave us a good view over the airport and the city itself.

The beautiful scenery of Switzerland disappeared shortly after departure and was replaced by those layers of clouds which somehow look very intriguing too.

Service was quickly performed and was the exact same type of service I received on my first flight to Zurich the day earlier and would receive after on the onward legs. A bottle of Elisabethen still water.

Even before I've had a few sips of water, we were already in descend towards Munich and were quickly notified by the cockpit to fasten our seatbelts as it was going to be a rainy and bumpy approach.

With a tight connection of fifty minutes in Munich, the early arrival into Munich by about five minutes was pretty good and the landing performed by the flight crew were so too. Disembarking was shortly followed at stand with the same technique by having flight attendants call several rows of seat to disembark, while the rest remains seated. In most cases it does work, but often people are simply not listening either.

A last look of the aircraft that brought us over from Zurich. 

The next report will continue from here.