Introduction
This story is that of the first segment of the LJU-BLQ air route via CDG. Making a 900 km detour to travel 300 km as the crow flies (and less than 400 km by road) may seem geographically absurd, but the flight times and the astronomical price of a rental car return in another country (therefore the obligation to make a return trip by car) eliminated the car rental option.
Taking the train would have been cheaper, long distance buses even cheaper, but would not have saved overall travel time.
(thanks gcmap.com)
We are now in the second segment of the routing of this week of vacation:
Enchainement de vols
- 1
- 2AF1037 - Economy - Ljubljana → Paris - Embraer E-190
- 3
- 4AF1329 - Economy - Bologna → Paris - Embraer E-190
Journey to LJU and check-in
On the morning of our departure, the reception of our hotel had booked us a taxi to the airport (at a flat 25 € rate), and since the hotel was in the pedestrian zone, a short transfer in Kavalir: an electric vehicle that serves this area on demand. It was not really needed for us, but riding it before leaving the city was fun.
These shuttles, which can be reserved or flagged down as they pass, are completely free for users; the website of the Ljubljana tourist office specifies that " Kavalirs are mainly intended for the transport of the elderly, mobility-impaired people, and visitors, ": I let my readers identify where I belong in this core target!
We reached the airport In less than half an hour from start to finish. (There is also a bus, but the journey takes 45 minutes due to the intermediate stops, it leaves from the central station which is much further from the historic heart and above all there is only one per hour on weekdays, one every two hours on weekends.)
(This is incidentally the first Flight Report published in English on LJU's new terminal which had opened the month before
Unlike for the CDG-LJU flight, AF did not issue the BPs for this LJU-CDG-BLQ journey during online check-in, certainly in order to have a pre-flight visual check of the mandatory health documents. I had reserved our seats when purchasing the tickets; these are the available seats on the day before the flight (red = 15 € supplement, blue = free). I am not sure why the reason(s) for "unavailable" (light gray)seats, as ooposed to "occupied" seats marked with a cross:
- center of gravity issues ?
- preassignment to passengers who did not check in yet ?
- empty seats next to high status passengers ?
- seats reserved for deadheading staff ?
This diagram would translate into a 75% load ratio if the J was full.
There was already a long line before the check-in counters a little over an hour before the flight would close
The Skypriority counter was busy, but very quickly, the clerk at a counter assigned to another flight beckons me to approach.
No luggage to check in, all applicable health documents: getting that old-fashioned BP (with an old-fashioned scribble of the gate number!) was quick.
Going upstairs for the security check, which offered a panoramic view of the are space and the waiting line whose length has hardly changed.
View of the mountains and part of the car park in front of the terminal
A single security check line was enough, with no inexperienced passenger before us.
We were going to be the inexperienced passengers this time, because our two carry-on pieces of luggage are set aside for verification … because of our nail clippers, which the (courteous) staff did not need of my measuring tape to see that they do not present any danger. I do not remember that they have never been checked before; the waste of time was minimal, as he wanted to see that only.
A short walk through a local mini-market, with alleys wide enough not to have to slow down
LJU's lounge
The entrance to the lounge is impossible to miss, opposite the exit of the shopping area. The welcome counter is hidden behind this high partition that you have to go around to provide your credential for being admitted, voiding a hypothetical sanitary protection measure.
Apart from a few seats in the background above, you can see below about a third of the width of the lounge. Access to (clean) toilets is in far end.
Sometimes the operator has switched to the digital press (like AF), sometimes the newspapers and magazines has been axed per sanitary rules or raw cost cutting: the press on paper tends to disappear from airports, but not here.
An honorable choice of food, given the very low attendance of the lounge which would empty when boarding started for the flight to FRA: less than ten passengers, including us.
XL sized bretzel.
These were the last days of disposable bottles of water in AF's lounges in CDG (that I would refill for reuse during my travels)…
… and there were only one liter bottles for collective use here.
Close-up of Fanta bottles and wines
Beer tap
Elegant stemmed glasses
My very small selection: Iit was not so much time since our breakfast in our hotel, and would have lunch in the lounge in CDG.
The very short list of flights departing from late in the morning. No, the traffic was not stopping at 4 p.m.! LJU's current service was nevertheless very sparse : only CDG and FRA were served daily.
(CAT506 was a flight from Copenhagen Air taxi: it did not count as a scheduled flight.)
A work and rest area on the window side is separated by this low partition
Some plane spotting
The lounge provides this observation deck which offers a somewhat distant view of the parking area on the right. the roof terrace has been covered with wood all the way to the glass partition, in order to protect the roof's watertightness.
757 DHL, an aircraft whose plugged windows betray its conversion into a freighter
On the left, EI-GEH is one of the stored CRJ900s.
But on the right, OY-MIL (stored by Copenhagen AirTaxi) hides a S5-AFA, a CRJ900 whose engines have been removed since the bankruptcy of Adria Airways, and an unidentified fourth CRJ.
The windows in the airside public area are slanted, which protects them from the rain if the wind is unfavorable) overlook the tarmac and the runway.
Sprint Air ATR72
The LH CRJ-900 to FRA
A Falcon 900EX behind
LJU is managed entirely by Fraport, the operator of FRA
Watering the lawn with local resources, checking that the equipment is in good condition, or training firefighters? :)
A table football available for free in a corner
Boarding - the cabin of the E190
Our flight was going to board there; beyond that, it is clearly the non-Schengen area.
The Air France Hop! E-190 was at the end of a jetbridge…
… which was at the end of a long corridor
More gangway than plane in this picture
Door shot
Like on the CDG-LJU flight, I was in pole position to take the picture of the empty cabin.
28 cm from the edge of the seat to the seat pocket, a little more than 46 cm wide between the armrests: the seating space is adequate.
The carpet was clean
The PSU, photographed shortly before takeoff
Somewhat worn safety cards
Baggage loading was in progress
A little more planespotting
This Pilatus PC-12 would operate a triangular LJU-SPU-BEG-LJU route
South African Airways A320 which was not about to fly south any time soon
Just like this Arik Air (Nigeria) CRJ900 whose engines had been removed.
The terminal seen after pushback
OK for the start after pushback
A little more plane spotting
A German Cessna 172 has taken off in the meantime
A motley collection of aircraft with a very uncertain future, seen through the window on the other side. I haven't even found any information on ES-MCQ, although the registration number is clearly visible in the background.
Amelia E-145, American Cessna 501, Cessna Citation 500 (Luxwing Aviation).
Another CRJ-xxx without her engines.
Take off and climb
Aligning on Track 30
A too distant view of the aircraft tightly parked in the maintenance area
The entire terminal
Zoom on the terminal and the north maintenance area. Note that the passenger traffic has decreased so much that half of the parking lot has been transformed into a karting circuit!
I cropped this photo so that the lounge's terrace (with a darker surface, because it is made of wood) is flush with the right edge of the image
Kranj
The business areas in the center of Kranj
Škofja Loka
The plane started curiously by heading south (thanks to Flightradar24)
Polhov Gradec, about 10 km west of Ljubljana
The hilltops are dotted with scattered hamlets
Alpine Geography 101
Žiri, seen after the turn to the southwest
The border between Italy on the left and Slovenia on the right passes here, in the center of the picture. This city (Görz, or Gorizia) of Austria-Hungary was parted in 1916 according to the wishes of the respective populations between the Kingdom of Italy and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, then assigned entirely to Italy in 1919, and eventually slplit again between Italy and Yugoslavia in 1947.
The marshalling yard of Slovenia's Nova Gorica is flush with the border
Italy's Gorizia, on the west side.
Arrival in the plain of Udine
The confluence of the rivers Torre and Natisone
Udine
Udine, bordered by the Tagliamento rivers on the left and Torre on the right
The Tagliamento leaving the mountains
Lake Redona
Lake Selva
The Alleghe lake in a gap in the clouds
Landscape in cloudy version
Two summits of the Dolomites: the Sassopiatto (or Plattkofel in German, 2,995 m) on the left and the Sassolungo (or Langkofel, 3,181 m) on the right
The Eisack valley, upstream from Bolzano
Bressanone
The trolley goes through the curtain
What did the passengers ahead of the curtain receive? We would have had to shell out € 89 or 22,300 miles to find out. Thanks, but no thanks.
So behind the curtain, we received this carrot - zucchini cumin sandwich (and a cup of coffee) which waited quietly for our arrival in our hotel room in the evening to complete our lunch in the lounge in CDG-2F and the offering on board the ensuing CDG-BLQ flight.
For fans of flight attendant uniforms, the flight attendant's bodice with white and black polka dots on a red background.
The northern end of Lake Resia, and the eponymous town on the left
Somewhat far from the trajectory, which required a little image processing to improve the contrast, Zurich and its lake…
… and ZRH of course
Lake Hallwil
In the center of the picture, the Gösgen nuclear power station, on the banks of the Aar.
Again a little far from the trajectory, the urban area of Basel
Zoom on EAP
Sochaux and Montbéliard in the center, Belfort in the upper right corner
The factories of car manufacturer Stellantis, in the center of the agglomeration of Sochaux
Before the cloud cover thickens, in the center of this photo…
Vesoul, with its business area in the center
Descent towards CDG
Only after the end of the descent do you see the ground again, south of Château-Thierry
Zoom on Château-Thierry
The curtain has been reopened
Air to air with an AF aircraft landing on the north doublet, which I oddly didn't see in the Flightradar24 replay.
The interchange between the N2 and the N1104, with characteristic triangular loops
The remote parking lot for the taxis serving CDG
Landing and taxiing
Terminal 2G
Departing AF 787-9
MEA A321neo
An Aeroflot A320
Takeoff of the 787-9 AF. This is F-HRBG, operating flight AF334 CDG-BOS and departing 44 minutes late
Air Austral and Air Canada
AF 777-300ER taxiing
The Hop! Embraers parked at Terminal 2G
Bad news, we're going to park there, which means a transfer by PAXbus.
Hop! E-170
But good news, we are a quarter of an hour ahead of scedule: this will compensate for that
This picture is a good illustration of the fact that you should never spend three seconds fine-tuning a picture when the subject will only remain visible for one second, here because of the blast shields.
Azores Airlines A321neo LR
Deplaning and transfer
Fuselage shot
Passengers waiting apparently for the deplaning of travel companions; they will take the next PAXbus.
Hop! E170 seen in passing when leaving
Etihad 787-10 seen in flight at Terminal 2E
As a safety measure no doubt, all the hammers are gathered in the driver's cabin of the PAXbus, which is hermetically separated from passengers. In the event of a fire breaking out after a crash, I hope that the driver hasn't fainted.
We were connecting between two international flights in CDG, which was very unusual for us.
Our next flight to Bologna is displayed on time
Paris was careful not to claim here that they love you, because the escalator to the Departures level of Terminal 2F had broken down.
Going to pier 2
It was almost the exit for those leaving in CDG, and this is the end of this FR.
I like to have visited a place before UNESCO classifies it in its prestigious World Heritage List, but there, I was beaten by less than two weeks. I let you discover it, and more, in the following bonus.
