Review of Austrian Airlines flight from Frankfurt to Innsbruck in Economy

introduction + trip information

A warm welcome to the final installment of my April 2019 trip to Bulgaria! When last we saw each other, I had arrived at Frankfurt Airport after a short flight from Sofia. Before we begin, let me refresh your memory with the routing of my trip:

transiting at frankfurt airport

My inbound flight arrived at a remote stand, so we had to be bussed to the terminal. I didn't mind, though, as I got to see this beautiful Qatar A380-800 (A7-APD) which was being prepared for it's flight back home to Doha as QR68.

As we arrived at Terminal 2, I rushed upstairs to try to beat the crowd and reach my connecting flight, which I was hoping was late.

Immigration and security were a breeze, and a few minutes later I found myself in a large Duty Free shop.

Rushing to my gate.

Seeing as gate A4 was empty, I decided to cut my losses and head to the Lufthansa Service Center to get my new boarding pass.

lufthansa senator lounge a

A very friendly agent informed me that I had been rebooked onto OS288, the last Innsbruck flight of the day. She gave me my boarding pass and I headed to the Senator Lounge.

Entry way.

Nice model A321.

A surprisingly empty lounge! I've actually never seen a Lufthansa lounge this empty.

Found myself a comfy-looking seat by the window, in front of some Red Sox fans who only let me sit there because I was wearing a hat "of a New York team that wasn't the Yankees" :)

Time for a look at the food options. Mini Schnitzels for kids…

…tomato soup…

…and my choices, Tortellini with Tomato Sauce…

…and Waffles with Chocolate Sauce. Yeah!!!

Time for some planespotting.

Austrian A319 (OE-LDE 'Baku') to Vienna as OS132. Funnily enough, I saw this exact aircraft a few hours ago in Sofia.

Lufthansa A319 (D-AILI) from Berlin-Tegel as LH197.

Lufthansa A380-800 (D-AIMA 'Frankfurt am Main') to Singapore as LH778.

Aegean A320 (SX-DGX) to Heraklion as A3431.

Lufthansa A321 (D-AISX 'Celle') to Athens as LH1284.

Lufthansa A320 (D-AIWD 'Halberstadt') to Berlin-Tegel as LH44.

Lufthansa A320neo (D-AINI) to Brussels as LH1022.

Lufthansa A330-300 (D-AIKS) to Male as LH704. Flew this bird in August 2014 from Munich to Washington in Business Class.

Lufthansa A321 (D-AIDU) from Hamburg as LH29

Lufthansa A321 (D-AIRS 'Husum') from Paris-CDG as LH1035.

Austrian A320 (OE-LBV 'Weinviertel') to Vienna as OS126.

Lufthansa A319 (D-AIBH 'Herborn') from Tromsø as LH871.

Now, a quick tour of the lounge. Here's a mini-buffet for drinks and small snacks…

…smoking area…

…napping area…

…'bar' seating…

…newspapers…

…business center…

…phone booths…

…and lastly, the walkway to the spa.

Some of this evening's departures, including my flight, OS288.

After a very enjoyable 4+ hours, I headed to the gate.

Oooh, the First Class Lounge. I'm yet to get in to one of those.

boarding + initial impressions

One of the last people to arrive at my gate.

Thanks Lufthansa! I look forward to the next time.

As the Dash 8 is too small for any gate here at Frankfurt, so we were bussed to the gate. And you know what that means: more planespotting!

Lufthansa A320 (D-AIQD) to Munich as LH120.

Lufthansa A319 (D-AILE 'Kelsterbach') to Munich as LH122.

Lufthansa A320neo (D-AINL 'Weinheim an der Bergstraße') to Berlin-Tegel as LH202.

Lufthansa A320neo (D-AINC) to London-Heathrow as LH920.

Lufthansa A320 (D-AIUF) to Tunis as LH1326.

Lufthansa A321 (D-AIDJ 'Remscheid') to Paris-CDG as LH1052.

Lufthansa A320 (D-AIUI) to Venice as LH332.

Lufthansa A320 (D-AIZG 'Sindelfingen') to Oslo as LH864.

Lufthansa A321 (D-AIDL 'Reutlingen') to Lisbon as LH1172. Flew this bird in February 2017 from Frankfurt to Sofia in Business Class.

Lufthansa CityLine CRJ900 (D-ACNU 'Uetersen') to Poznan as LH1380.

Lufthansa CityLine Embraer 190 (D-AECA 'Deidesheim') to Tirana as LH1454.

Lufthansa A319 (D-AILR 'Tegernsee') from Billund as LH841.

Lufthansa A320 (D-AIZX) from Agadir as LH1329.

Lufthansa A319 (D-AILL 'Marburg') from Belgrade as LH1407.

Lufthansa A320 (D-AIPT) from Brussels as LH1019.

Lufthansa A320 (D-AIUD) from Stockholm-Arlanda as LH805.

Lufthansa A321 (D-AISN 'Göppingen') from Cairo as LH583.

Lufthansa A321 (D-AIDV 'Retro' Livery) to Madrid as LH1120.

Arriving at my bird, OE-LGJ.

It's still wearing one of Austrian's older liveries.

The aircraft is named after the town of Baden and was built and delivered to Austrian Arrows in 2005. It transfered to Austrian mainline in 2012.

Be aware: row 11 of Austrian's Dash 8s don't have a window.

At my seat, 12F.

Decent legroom.

Featured in this month's Skyline magazines: the one and only Los Angeles, California.

Wonderful view of the gear…

…and the prop.

austrian 288 - frankfurt to innsbruck

As boarding wrapped up, Captain Christian welcomed us on board and announced a flight time of 50 minutes in "excellent flying conditions".

Engine start.

Flaps 5.

Taxiing to Runway 18.

departure from frankfurt

Lining up with the runway.

Rolling.

Rotate.

Tschüß Hessen!

Dusk over Germany.

Takeoff video.

Darmstadt, Germany.

Last views of a lit sky.

snack service + mid-flight

Cabin during service.

Water.

Milka biscuit.

Schwäbisch Hall, Germany.

arrival into innsbruck

As we passed west of Augsburg, the Captain announced that we were approaching Innsbruck, and would land to the east.

Ulm, Germany.

Kempten, Germany.

Reutte, Austria.

Doesn't do it justice, but we had a great view of the moon on our approach.

Western Inn Valley, Austria.

On short final over the industrial town of Völs.

Over the runway.

Firm landing at 9:57 PM local.

Taxiing off the runway.

Landing video.

Pulling into our stand.

Deplaning.

Logo on bulkhead.

Thanks for the ride, Baden!

The small Innsbruck terminal.

Company Dash 8 OE-LGK ('Burgenland') just arrived from Vienna as OS913.

routing of os288

I took a taxi from the airport and was at my home 7 minutes later. Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you in the next series!