Review of Air France flight from Stockholm to Paris in Economy

This is the return flight of the CDG-ARN flight reported here.
The flight did not seem to be full on the OLCI the day before, but there were few window seats left. Since I had no intention of sleeping or reclining my seat, since my wife was not there to try the neutralized middle seat trick, which not try Seat 26A, looking east to catch the last glimpses of the Swedish landscapes before the night, and with a single neighbor to make it easier to move around ? I selected it.

It was a fast ride on the Arlanda Express, which as expensive as it is comfortable (540 SEK round trip, vs. 2 x 520 SEK with a taxi, or 2 x 99 SEK with a direct bus).

I had ample time for plane spotting which had of course a strong déjà vu feeling, because I usually take the same flight from ARN. Sky City (the landside shops area between Terminals 4 and 5 has wide windows on the tarmac side, but they look west and the lighting conditions are a disaster in late afternoon, with a view on SK 737s only. I thought that next time, I would not bother riding the Arlanda Express to its second station in the airport.

Arrival of a DY 738, seen from another area

The control tower

Walking towards Terminals 2 and 3

I stopped to obtain my BP from this machine, before going in this corridor leading to Terminal 3. Its windows on both sides provide decent views with acceptable lighting conditions in late afternoon.

There were of course many SK 737-700 and -800

Rotation of one of them in the background

She became airborne in the usual afternoon adverse lighting conditions

Arctic Airlink Saab 340

Nextjet Saab 340

Nextjet Sweden is the only airline still operating BAE ATPs on passenger flights. This aircraft did not meet with commercial success : only 64 units have been built.

Arrival of a Finnair A319

Departure of a KLM 738 in Skyteam livery

These two DHL 757 are part of the usual landscape in the freight area beyond Terminal 2, at this time of the day .

The same applies to this UPS 767 freighter

Last, an Amapola Flyg Fokker 50 freighter

Arrival of PH-HCI (British Aerospace Jetstream 31) belonging to AIS Airlines, a Dutch charter airline.

Better not try Terminal 3 for toilets landside, because there is room for one person at a time, hence these waiting passengers outside.

Better go to Terminal 2, whose ample landside toilet facilities are one of its few advantages.

The crowd was not in the toilets, but here waiting in a rather long waiting line to the security check.

I did not worry about making it too late in my boarding gate, all the less that my flight was listed late. Spending extra time in ARN’s Terminal 2 was not my plan for the night.

The line grew longer behind me. There was a supply of plastic bags for fluids in the foreground which proved handy because mine had just died, with a completely desealed bottom end. The length of the waiting line was less a problem than the presence of several passengers in it.

No, these were not convicts who had escaped from some American prison, but members of the Dutch Football Federation, who sported clothes and luggage of their national color.

The problem was that they were calling each other with voices as loud as if they were in a crowded stadium, and that it was just awfully tiring for the other passengers (for me, at least). I would have preferred American convicts on the run: they would have been a lot quieter.

After spending 23 minutes which felt like double that because of these poor ambassadors of their country and their sport, I could at last put some distance between them and I, and buy the smoked salmon which my wife considers to be the only justification for a business trip to Sweden.

Last plane spotting opportunity with the Ethiopian 787 operating a fifth freedom flight four times a week to VIE (and onward to ABB). She is usually parked in the freight area until this time.

… until being towed to her gate

There are few power ports, there are few seats close to them, and a passenger who spent all his waiting time dozing and sleeping monopolized one of these few seats with a power supply behind, but the neighboring seat was still free when I arrived.

Furthermore, he was noisily snoring, until the noisy boarding of his flight to TXL. However, I preferred a noisily asleep German traveler to a noisily awake bunch of Dutch travelers.

This was all I saw of the Air Berlin A32x

The passengers of the AF flight started waiting line soon afterwards at Gate 67, in a much less noisy manner

Because the AF 319 had arrived

I know I have registration number geeks among my readers:

Boarding started, with due respect of the priorities. It would probably be too late for landscapes, despite the will of the captain (a woman) to catch up as much of the delay caused by CDG’s air traffic control.

Bad surprise when I reached the rear of the aircraft and discovered that my window seat did not have a window (a typical rookie’s mistake)

The FA standing in the rear galley saw me take a series of pictures including this one and must have seen a disappointed look on my face. After a short friendly chat, she suggested with a charming smile that I wait until all passengers had boarded, and go up the aisle to Seat 7A which was supposed to be available.

But once there, Seat 7A turned out to be occupied. I backtracked to the rear of the aircraft, where the same FA proposed with her unwavering smile to sit in 22F, which was indeed free. All that meant going twice past the FA standing in the middle of the aircraft, who was just as friendly and courteous as her colleague.

You could say “All that for that?”, if you remember that I had rejected Seat 23F on the OLCI, and eventually travelled just one row ahead, but with my suitcase in the overhead bin above Seat 26A, which meant that I would need to wait until all passengers had deplaned to reach it.
Waiting a few extra minutes for deplaning was not going to make a significant change for me though, and it was really nice to meet FAs dedicated to providing that extra unrequired service and human warmth, especially on a flight which for them too was both late and delayed.
The seats in this A319 were different from those of the A320 of the flight on the way in : the seat pitch was much more comfortable (or standard, rather), at 25 cm vs. an incredible 20 cm only on the way in.

The more unexpected good surprise was that the seat was wider too: 46 cm between armrests vs. less than 44 cm in the A320: the aircraft’s overall width was the same of course, but there was less space between the armrest and the fuselage (6 cm vs. 9 cm). I could not measure it, but an industry insider also confirmed that the aisle is narrower in this seat layout (some FAs are said to complain about that). In short, it was much more comfortable seat, even when your body is LCC-compatible.

With regards to the IFE, there was no difference in its deep space vacuum.

A protection of a seat’s support had disappeared here, but that did not really matter.

It should have been like this

I strongly suspect that this aircraft had operated a round trip to WAW in the preceding 24 hours, at the sight of this train ticket originating in Szczecin and arriving in Warsaw at 17:35 the day before this flight. I found it in the magazine pocket.

The safety sheet both sides

In the distance and poor lighting conditions, the famous 747-200 converted into some kind of a luxury youth hostel (providing the comfort of a YH room at luxury hotel prices)

The flight was not full (the OLCI had hinted that), but the load ratio was high

Another Flight Reporter on board?

The maze of waterways marking the limits of the county of Stockholm, beyond the bridge under Highway 263, west of ARN, appearing here under the wing

The landform under the wing – where Grönsöö Castle is located – is not an island, unlike the second one.

The left part of this picture is actually a large island (Selaön)

Hjälmaren Lake, the fourth largest in Sweden; Örebro is located just beyond the top edge of the lake on the left.

The fruit juices (apple, orange, tomato), the water bottle and the jugs of coffee and tea on the trolley (there was probably Coca-Cola too).

This is the food (I would not call it dinner) served with as much smiling as in the previous interactions, before unwrapping.

And after unwrapping

The contents of this cake are listed so that a careless reader could believe that there is 10%, or even maybe 36.5% of coconut. It’s actually 10% of 36.5%.

Starters consisted in a small pack containing propylene glycol, polyaminopropyl biguanide, methylisothiazolinone and an unspecified fragrance: not a very palatable content

… but you are not supposed to eat this before starting your meal

For once, the paper cups for coffee, and previously the plastic cups for fruit juice, are compatible with the cup holder.

Only because the captain announced that we were going to see Rotterdam on the right of the aircraft …

… did I identify this wavy ribbon of urban lights

I let you compare with the view on the way in, from a different angle

On the other hand, I did not need the announcement of the descent to Paris to recognize this city

The rotating projector of the Eiffel Tower (four projectors, one on each side, actually)

The Eiffel Tower was just below the horizon here in the right hand side quarter of the picture

It was much more visible here

Last turn, and later last smile of the FA in the rear galley, before deplaning.
My car was parked close to an exit of the car park, but it turned out to be closed for maintenance work, which required driving all the way through the parking lot, and then drive the same distance in the reverse direction once outside. Furthermore, the staff who was supposed to redirect the traffic was standing in a useless location, instead of being where the signage which had not been masked was directing the drivers to the exit which was closed. It all resulted in a few minutes wasted at a time when I wanted to make full use of the absence of traffic between the airport and my home to get there as (legally) fast as possible.
I have no other picture of a plane against a sunset in store (this is the same Braathens Avro RJ-100 as in my incoming flight’s report)…

… so I suggest to look down to the ground level, at these heavy cast iron manhole covers which shield the access to underground networks like in many other cities. One of the most vital ones is that of water, handled in à Stockholm by Stockholm Vatten

Some other manhole covers bear the name of their producer : Finland’s Uponor

But there is only a logo here. Which reader will be able to identify it ?

Thanks for reading me!
PS :
I received 232 FB airmiles each way for this trip. That is to be compared to the 10,500 airmiles + 30,10 EUR fee for a CDG-ARN award ticket (10,500 airmiles and 16,51 EUR in the reverse direction). That is the notion of a business trip perk, in Flying Blue’s world.