Hello everyone. Back in the skies to go out and check out how's business doing in Lugano. I love that little flight that lasts barely 40 minutes and offers magnificent views on the Alps. And the approach is always very special in Lugano, which makes it fun!
This line will be cancelled as of October 10th, so this is the last time I will fly it. Sad, cause then it's only Etihad Regional operated by Darwin who's flying it, and no way to use the perks of my Frequent Traveler Status when flying with them
Anyway, let's get to it: early morning arrival in GVA (it was 05h40, boarding was at 06h25). I parked my car, made my way to the Business Class counter to get my boarding pass (yeah, I'm one of those who just loves having the paper BP whenever I can!) and talking of Frequent Traveler status, I made use of the Priority Lane at security as there was quite a lot of people (all the London flights leave at that time, as well as a considerable amount of Easy Jet flights). From my car to past the security area, it took me no longer than 10 minutes. That was really nice, so I went to the lounge, which I didn't plan at first considering that last time I took this flight, I almost missed it because of all the mess at check-in and security. Damn, I love my Frequent Traveler card!
So that left me some time to grab a Breakfast. Breakfast buffet was there with some bread, croissants, jam, cereals and yogurts.
I read the news too, with wide selection of newspapers:
The lounge was still quite empty, while the Lounge from British Airways next door still wasn't open, as it opens only at 6am (which was strange, given the amount of flights to LON early morning). But well, not my problem :). The Swiss Lounge opens at 05.30am.
Wide slection of juices, soft drinks, wine and liquors. Quite basic, but good enough!
Time to get to my gate. It seems the Lugano flights are always at the A6 or A7 Gates, which are 2 minutes away from the Lounge. It was the day before and the day after. But whenever I take it, it gets to the D70 something gates. That's quite annoying but let's just say it's bad luck :) Still, it's a good 10 minutes walk to get there, if you walk fast. Geneva is so small but the gates are really spread apart. I left the Lounge 5 minutes before the official boarding time.
So first, let's head all the way down the A Terminal, to gate A3, and then, take the escalator down to the tunner under the tarmac:
Then, you arrive into the tunnel, which is quite long, to get to the D30 gates. Still not there
Take a left and here's another tunnel to the gates.
Here we are at the gate, Boarding hasn't started yet, but soon enough, it will. I had to wait 5 minutes or so and boarding started at 06:35
Of course, being in the furthest gates of the whole airport didn't seem to be enough, so we had to take a Paxbus. Being at that gate, you just know that's gonna happen.
Here we are, freezing in the bloody bus.
Boarding was made in no time, there was only 20 pax or so, but as usual, the C-Class Pax does need about three times as much as the others to get settled, take his jacket off and put his stuff in the bin. Ok, I'm over-exagerating a bit, but this is something I tend to experience a lot lately. But well, no drama, we were on time, so that was the main thing. My seat was 6A, window as usual, and sitting alone on the row, as the plane was really not full.
Seats are very thin, which is good for legroom but certainly not for your back. My back started to hurt after 20 miutes of board.
Outisde the window, all is black and not much to be seen. Taxi to 05 was made in no time as our plane was paked at the southwest of the airport, near the Bizjets. Short takeoff, as we were so light.
Soon we were in the clouds and daylight started to be visible
And then came the sunrise in the horizon. Unfortunately, I was sitting on the wrong side of the plane (bad choice, F seats would have been a much wiser choice) so the Alps view wasn't that great. Oh well…
The colours were however beautiful, and so we reached our cruising altitude of about 24'000ft, that we held for a whole 6 minutes before starting our descent. Service was a bottle of water and that's it. Wait, what? What happened to the Swiss Chocolate? Nothing, we didn't get any. That was quite a dissapointement, cause I really do love them.
This approach is really amazing, you pass between 2 mountains, make a sharp left and sharp right turn to align, all that with a strong nose-down attitude. Knowing the length of the runway, you know you gotta watch your speed!
And touchdown, with the terminal in the Background
Here's our ride, OE-LGR, as we deplane
Here's our flight path. As you can see, sitting on the right hand side would have been a much wiser choice!
Arrival in Lugano is always fun, cause you walk out the plane into the building, there's one baggage carousel, which is tiny, then you walk through customs which is mostly unoccupied as it's almost exclusively domestic flights, and then you're in the Departure/Arrivals hall, where the passengers taking your plane in 20 minutes are going through security. I took my rental car and was out in a matter of seconds. And here's the terminal from the public area. Welcome to sunny Lugano!
I flew back on the same evening, and something I totally unexpected happened on that flight! Check it out Here
