Review of Avion Express flight from Lanzarote Island to London in Business

Luck of the draw

Hey guys! Welcome to another Flight Report. 

This FR will cover the return flight back from Lanzarote following my outbound trip on the Jet2 A330. Surprisingly, this'll actually be my first time flying British Airways, or would've been, if it wasn't operated by Avion Express. For those who aren't familiar, Avion Express is a Lithuanian aircraft leasing operator that wet or damp leases aircraft to airlines during the summer months for additional capacity, meaning that they supply the aircraft and crew to the airline for a fee. They are a frequent sight around leisure-oriented airports (like Gatwick), having operated for easyJet, TUI and BA.  

I picked BA mainly because it was the cheapest option, which is quite a surprise considering that this route is also well served by LCCs like easyJet and Ryanair. And finally, lets address the elephant in the room: yes, this is a business class review however I only paid the fare for economy (I generally never fly business as I'd much rather save the money and spend it on another trip or flight). In this case, the cost for economy was €65 and €250+ for business (I didn't specifically check). Personally, I don't think this price increase is worth it at all, but let's see if this flight can change my opinion. ;)

From 2023, I aim to offset all of my CO2 emission from flights. All emissions are calculated using the ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator and I will be funding projects approved by The Gold Standard. The CO2 output for this trip is:
 
ACE-LGW: 220kg
Total for 2023 (so far): 2006kg

Lanzarorte Airport (ACE)

View outside of the airport. The airport is fairly well served by buses and taxis are also available. 

The arrivals area is located on the ground floor, right behind the main entrance.  

Plenty of car rental companies here, along with a café. 

The check-in desks are located upstairs.  

Departures for the afternoon. Our flight (BA2733) is on the first row of the 2nd screen.  

Wow! Just look at the sheer number of flights heading to the UK (and Ireland)!  

Check-in area for Jet2. The area for BA is right behind (under the departure board), it took absolutely no time to check-in as there were no queues at all.  

Security took under 5 minutes and here's the duty-free area right after.

The waiting area is just one long building with shops and restaurants on one side and the gates on the other. The airport doesn't separate Schengen and non-Schengen passengers as passports are checked and stamped during boarding. As you can see, the airport isn't really designed for the peak summer traffic as the entire area is very crowded with almost no spare seating. 

Photo of the other end of the pier. Once again, very crowded but at least there's plenty of shops and bars/restaurants.  

View of the apron out of one of the airport's few windows. 

There's also some construction going on at the other end of the terminal.  

the flight

Flight time today will be around 3 hours 30 minutes and here is our route: 

Our flight will be departing out of gate 8 today. Shortly after the gate was announced, passengers started queueing behind the barriers, making the already crowded airport even worse.  

There were also no priority boarding with passengers boarding on a first come first served basis. During boarding, the gate agent told me that I would be moved to seat 3F (in business class) as there was a seating issue, I suspect I was chosen because I was travelling solo (this is a holiday flight with most travelling with friends/family, after all). Still, this gives me a unique opportunity to review a business class product for once. 

Like on other European medium haul flights, the seats in business class is the same as the ones you'll find in economy.  

Which means that the legroom is really, really poor.  

The tray table.  

And on each seat is a pillow.  

First views out of the window. Apologies for the blurry photos, the windows aren't the cleanest and this is the best I could do sadly. 

Some info about our plane:

Type: Airbus A320
Registration: 9H-MLZ
First flight: 11 January 2008
Age: ~16 years
Config: CY180

Originally delivered to Wizz Air in February 2008, she had a long life with the airline before being withdrawn in October 2022. The aircraft was then leased to Avion Express Malta, who is now wet-leasing it to BA Euroflyer until September this year. 

During boarding, the crew handed out a bottle of water… 

… and some snacks.  

Pushback on time.  

Through the dirty windows you can just about make out the Jet2 A330 that I flew in on a few days ago.  

On the runway.  

And up we go! Bye bye Lanzarote!  

Amazing views of the Arrecife in the distance. 

One last photo of the island.  

Reaching our cruising altitude. 

Right after takeoff, the crew came around with drinks. Alcohol is available, however I just went with coke. 

Gorgeous sunset over the Atlantic.  

A little while later, the crew came around serving meals. There were 3 options: chicken with mash, mushroom risotto or a chicken salad. I went with the salad (along with a fresh can of coke). Along with the salad, there was another salad, a small cheesecake, some cheese, a bun and some crackers. All in all, a really nice meal.  

Let's have a look at the contents of the seatback pocket, which includes: 

- A safety card.  

- And two air sickness bags.  

I fell asleep for much of the flight after that and woke up as we are descending towards Gatwick.  

 
Yeah, dirty windows + night-time = horrible photos. At least there's absolutely nothing to see anyway.  

On final with some form of civilization in the distance.

Finally, welcome to London! We landed 10 minutes late. 

Taxiing to the gate.  

London gatwick (LGW)

(Gosh, how many times have I reviewed Gatwick haha.)

Walking to passport control… 

… which was fairly efficient. There was actually quite a queue (which is surprising considering that it's like 1:00AM) but I got through in around 10 minutes thanks to the automatic passport barriers. 

The arrivals area.  

The train station having recently completed its upgrade (in the upper floor at least).

That concludes this FR, thank you very much for reading and see you in another FR… soon.