Review of British Airways flight London → Paris in Economy

Europe's Historic Air Bridge

London to Paris was the first route ever conducted by a commercial airline in August 1919. 

Air Transport and Travel (AT&T) operated from Hounslow Heath to LeBourget. AT&T was then eventually swallowed into Imperial Airways which then became nationalised with other UK Airlines as British Overseas Air Corporation (BOAC) in 1939 shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. In 1974 BOAC merged with British European Airways (BEA) to form the current British Airways.

The London-Paris route evolved itself. Paris LeBourget closed to commercial airlines in the late 1960s in favour of the brand new Paris Charles de Gaulle, but the airport remains Paris main choice for corporate jets and general aviation, also hosting the biannual Paris Air Show. Hounslow Heath closed and eventually a new post-WW2 Airport opened in 1947 at Heathrow- becoming London Heathrow Airport we know today.

London to Paris has also being linked by Paris Orly and Paris Beauvais at various times with other airlines also using London Gatwick, London Luton and London Stansted. A notable fifth freedom route between the two was the Turkish Airlines service which in March 1974 saw the deadly crash of THY981 which operated at the time an Istanbul-Paris Orly-London Heathrow service. 

This bring us to the modern London Heathrow to Paris Charles de Gaulle route which gets multiple links daily by British Airways and Air France.

Terminal 5 & BA Galleries Lounge South

Welcome to Terminal 5- the Home of British Airways

I made it to Terminal 5 about 100 minutes before my flight was due to depart, I had priority security so that took out a nice chunk of waiting time, before making a big circle around to get to the entrance to the South Galleries Lounge, the largest BA Lounge at T5.

Entering the BA Lounge, I scanned to see what was on offer for the breakfast selection and I made my choices for the morning. I hadn't pre-ordered anything on the Speedbird Café, so I opted to fill up in the Lounge for free.

I also "might" have at 6:30am taken advantage of the free alcoholic beverages to enjoy a quick Johnny Walker Black label with Cola.

Much as I enjoy the BA Lounges, and I will miss this perk once my OneWorld Sapphire status downgrades in July 2023, I had to make my way over to the Gate my flight was preparing to board at.

British Airways BA304

Heading over to Gate A-16, I found my flight was to be operated by an Airbus A321-neo, the newest aircraft type in the short-haul British Airways fleet currently. The A321-neo was G-NEOV, delivered brand new to British Airways in August 2019- when BA Celebrated their Centenary. As a brand new plane, this A321-neo was active through the pandemic without seeing prolonged storage unlike older A320-ceo family aircraft.

Boarding was done by groups, as has been the case with British Airways for many years now. I was in Group 2, made up of OneWorld Sapphire flyers in Economy Class, going in behind Group 1 which contains OneWorld Emerald flyers in all classes, Club Europe flyers and anyone who needs essential priority like parents travelling with infants and people with mobility problems.

I was seated in Seat 13F. A quick travel tip for BA flyers, if you fly an Airbus A321-neo specifically, the first 15 Rows are all in the older style economy class seats which are used for Club Europe, but on flights with lighter loads, they are sold as Premium Seats for Euro Traveller flyers. If you have status on BA and can bag a seat for free or are wanting to avoid the rear cabin's Vueling style seats- it is worth the extra splurge.

The flight was quite full, but a few empty seats were scattered around the Euro Traveller cabin. We eventually pushed back and taxied down to Runway 27L, once on the Runway we powered off into the clear London skies, lifting past a very busy Terminal 5 at LHR.

We quickly reached our cruising altitude of 25,000ft. The crew began their onboard services. I appear to have neglected to take a picture of it, but it is in the video linked above.

In the meantime, our 10 minutes of flying over the UK came to an end as we crossed over into the English Channel for the next 15 minutes of the flight.

It was a smooth flight, I managed to get a few minutes of sleep in, before long the plane began to drop slightly as the decent into Paris had begun, we would be descending over France the entire time.

As we were descending, we crossed into France, passing over the beaches of Normandy- where US/UK/Canadian/French forces made their epic and harrowing landings on June 6th 1944. One day I might even visit those historic areas myself.

We arrived into Paris CDG Airport on time, we had quite a long taxi as we made our way around the Paris Airport for Terminal 2B, where the majority of OneWorld traffic is based including British Airways, Finnair, American and Royal Air Maroc.

A poignant moment of the taxi was coming here. We stopped by this intersection at Runway 08L-26R. On July 25th 2000 the ill-fated Air France AF4590 Concorde (F-BTSC) took off from this runway and it was at this intersection the infamous photo of the burning Concorde was taken by a tourist on an Air France Boeing 747 just arrived from Tokyo carrying the French Prime Minister.

After taking off the stricken Concorde flew for 90 seconds before stalling and crashing onto a hotel in the town of Gonnesse. The crew trying desperately to make it to Paris LeBourget Airport. Ironically the plane came down only 1 mile from the crash site of the 1973 Paris Air Show TU-144 "Concorski" disaster.

As usual once we parked up, I opted to wait until most the cabin was de-planed. 

After leaving the plane, I made my way through Paris immigration. We could use a biometric lane, and an immigration official stamped my passport into Paris. It didn't take long, about 15-20 minutes tops? I didn't have to claim bags, so I went straight for the Paris metro station at Paris CDG Airport, to connect into Paris Gare du Nord station.