Hello Everyone and welcome to this special and old old report!
Spoiler: if you want to see some nice historical aerial views of Lyon, look at the end of the FR!
This report is special to me as I think this was my second flight on my own, and happened when I was a teenager to visit an old friend of mine that was studying in Scotland.
I can't remember how much we paid, all I remember is that I bought online for the first time!
It really felt like new technology, I wasn't even sure that the booking was real!!
I will try to find the boarding pass and booking documents I am sure that I put it somewhere.
I arrived from Glasgow with my previous flight operated, if I remember correctly with a B737. Regretfully, I don't have that many pictures to publish a FR, just two so I'll skip it.
I remember I had enough time to go outside the airport for just a quick picture. I am not blurring the faces, as this was about more than 15 years ago!
And going back again through security.
Lyon and Birmingham are twin cities, is it the reason why there was a direct flight? Not sure but this doesn't exist anymore.
British Airwas had strenghtened its regional operation under the brand "BA connect" at the time, and it was just a few years before British Airways sold the branch that will become Flybe.
Aircraft: Embraer ERJ145-EU
Registration: G-EMBC
Engines: 2x AN AE 3007
Age: XXXX Years
Layout: Y45
I have not taken any pictures from the outside, I was a bit "scared" to be told off. However I do remember vividly the BA CONNECT livery of the embraer.
I have found this video on youtube to give you an idea
And also this video on youtube too about the BA CONNECT livery - I know it is from a flight simulation game but I couldn't find anything better I am afraid.
A picture from inside the plane
And take off (screenshots from the video I recorded at take off)
rotate towards the clouds
Bye bye BiIRRRRMingham!
I can't remember much about the service, I just remember I had a snack and a canned coke.
Can you see London? The big green square is Hyde Park of course, and on the foreground you can clearly see London Heathrow airport with the two parallel runways
Entering the English chanel area
Goodbye the UK (not for long!)
Hello France!
And Paris
The clouds later cleared above Burgondy
Viaduc of Mussy!
The Mont d'Or and Beaujolais
And here is the Capital (of Gauls!)
The presqu'Ile and Fourviere basilica on the foreground
The bit where the Saone and Rhone rivers meet, now called "confluence" but back then was still seedy and dodgy.
For the Lyonnais this might trigger some memories: a presqu'ile without confluence, just one tower at Part-Dieu business district…
I can't really appreciate and judge such an old flight, and especially with nowadays standards and criteria.
I left it at 7,5 for every mark. But this flight is still vivid as it was the firt time i was booking a flight with my money on my own!
5 Comments
What a nice report that absolutely belongs to the past! The Embraer ERJ145 is quite a nice aircraft and it is very sad to see her getting retired all over the planet. Also big legacy carriers as BA and LH have started to centralize all their routes so they can bundle them up at their hubs, which means that routes like BHX-LYS aren't possible anymore on BA.
Thanks again and hope to see more of these!
thanks so much for your comment.
This is my oldest flights that I have pictures of, and I think one of the oldest on this site (before 2010, not so many besides Concorde flights).
I agree with your analyse, but you could also say, in other words that now point to point routes like this one were given up and left for low-cost to take over.
Thanks for sharing!
Yes sad this golden times are long gone..
I am kind of lucky as there are still direct flights from Lys as it is still a fairly big airport...
The same way that seeing a long haul aircraft on their domestic market is becoming rare, unlike what I have experienced in 2006!
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