Review of KLM Cityhopper flight from Amsterdam to London in Economy

The Final Stretch!

After three epic days flying around Europe its time to come to the fifth and final flight of this trip.

This flight will cover a KLM Cityhopper Embraer ERJ-190 from Amsterdam Schiphol to London Heathrow, a first time for me.

Before we settle into the Report, here is a link of the last four flights.

Amsterdam Schiphol- The Connection!

One huge perk of this transfer was I could remain near the D-pier at Amsterdam Schiphol and not have to clear another passport control area. I took the time to wonder around and photograph some planes taxiing around AMS. 

I went to the Airside McDonald's at AMS, but to my surprise I found it really expensive, so much so that I would not advise people to go there if they wanted something to eat from the Airport. I had a coffee and Ice Cream which came to 7EUR!

After this, I had wished I'd gone and gotten a Heineken instead from one of the many bars at Schiphol!

I love spotting trips to AMS, its one of the "Big Four" Airports in Europe alongside London LHR, Paris CDG and Frankfurt FRA.

A little travel hack about AMS if you aren't familiar with the KLM Cityhopper service. Almost every KLM Cityhopper flight bound for the UK leaves from Gate D-6, which is split into multiple bus gates. Whilst there is a check for your boarding pass and passport by KLM Ground Staff, it is easy to access and there is usually a café open for customers waiting there. 

You can easily see and photograph planes parked and taxiing from here, but during the evening or early hours in winter it can be tricky.

All these gates will require you to get on a bus which then rides you across a quarter (25%) of Amsterdam Schiphol over to the so-called "Fokker Farm" which is the remote stand area that KLM Cityhopper and Air France Regional (HOP!) operate from.

If you get on the bus at the left side, you can get some great Airport views on the ride around which is very appealing to the AvGeek!

The D-6 Gate area is where KLM Cityhopper can take you to some really "exotic" UK destinations, including these cities!

KLM Cityhopper KL1027 (AMS-LHR)

Our bus pulled alongside the Embraer ERJ-190 PH-EZE, a 13 year old Embraer Regional Jet (ERJ) built brand new for KLM Cityhopper in June 2009. KLM carries 100 passengers in their E-190 aircraft.

KLM Cityhopper introduced the ERJ-190 in the late 2000s and early 2010s to replace their aging and out of production Dutch built Fokker F50 turboprops and Fokker F100 regional jets. KLM continued to operate a mix of ERJ-190 & Fokker F70 until 2017 when the F70 fleet retired as newer Embraer E-175 came in to fill the void. As the KLM Cityhopper ERJ-190 fleet get older and the cycles of flights increase, they will in turn be replaced by the Embraer E2-195.

I noticed that the KLM Cityhopper ERJ-190 fleet had been receiving a cabin upgrade like the bigger Boeing 737-NG fleet. The same seats featured in a 2 by 2 layout. It looked very nice and I noticed the ERJ cabin offered better legroom by a small margin compare to the Boeing 737.

I might have a thing for Row 17 on planes, but as it was my birthday (February 17th), I opted to enjoy Seat 17A. Which I thought offered a good wing view as well as plenty of viewing space around the field of vision from this window, just what I like!

Two bus journeys were required, but we still got off seemingly on time. We didn't have a prolong taxi out to the Polderbaan this occasion, so it was a short taxi to the main departure point at Runway 24. 

We lined up on Runway 24 and before we knew it we were rocketing off for the United Kingdom. Despite it being a full flight, the plane managed to rocket down the runway before lifting off nice and sharp, likely due to the light load of fuel required for an Amsterdam-London flight.

I think the two flight attendants knew they'd have their hands full on this flight!

The flight was a short 45 minutes, so the crew did a basic bar service compare to the Boeing 737 crew in my last report. A bottle of water and some crisp snacks were handed out. I can't fault this on a 45 minute flight, its better than a buy-on-board service.

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I found the seats quite comfortable on this short flight, I think they'd easily pass on longer flights into France, Norway, Poland and Germany as well. As with the Boeing 737 seats, the ERJ planes also had a USB port for charging phones.

We soon began our descent into London Heathrow, there wasn't much to see until the last few minutes of flight as it was dark and a little cloudy as we lowered from our cruising altitude.

We finally landed and made our way over to Terminal 3, where KLM and Air France have been using for almost 2 years now, though they recently announced a return to their usual home of Terminal 4 in the coming months.

After we parked up, I held back as everyone else wanted to rush off the aircraft and onward, I eventually filed out as there was a hold up at the back end of the cabin, so I opted to take this opportunity to grab some final shots of the cabin.

As much as I like flying on the KLM ERJ, I don't always get the time to make it happen, so I do savour my opportunities. The last time I flew on one of these was in January 2020, so just before the pandemic hit Europe.

After a quick journey through passport control, we must have come in at a good time, I went into the arrivals of Terminal 3 and made the walk down to the TFL (London Underground) for the Piccadilly Line and took it from the Heathrow Central Station (T1, T2, T3) over to Hatton Cross station, a journey which is FREE of CHARGE to do at the time of writing this, for those London based readers who want to avoid making pick up or drop off payments.