Review of Air France flight from Lyon to Paris in Economy

flying to cdg for the 50th time!

As part of my job, I have been travelling to Bordeaux a lot of times in the past year, up to a weekly basis at some point. This was the first time I experienced a "regular" flying experience, where even some crew member might recognise and greet me!
Fortunately, my job let us choose the airline we want to fly with, and so as a Flying blue frequent flyer I did not choose the orange plane over Air France.. 

Even though there are a fair amount of direct flights between Lyon and Bordeaux, I chose on this occasion a connection to CDG as I didn't want to fly early sunday morning nor after the Covid Curfew..

Flying blue Miles earned with this flight: 385
Status earned: 2 XP 

Air France app is quite comprehensive, you can easily navigate through options, travel tips, and of course your bookings and the service you will have on board.. Of course, like many others, the app offers you the possibility to check in online and get your boarding pass.

As an elite skyteam member, I was able to choose for free, from the time of booking my seat.

at lyon saint exupery airport

Since the covid times, Lyon Airport closed its terminal 1 and left the terminal 2 open, and so when before the Terminal 1 was mostly used by an Air France clientele, you could spot some orange birds in there too.

The dedicated check in counters of Air France KLM.

After going through security - very fast - less than 3 min!, I was able to go to the quite modest duty-free area.

The flights of the afternoon below, not that many but still more than the other french regional airports.

I have been to a few airports in France, and I think Lyon is the place where there is the most an established routine… In gate Q0X Air France is almost the only airline to use them but Q06 has been invariably my departing gate to Paris for the last months or so…

Quite unfortunately the Air France lounge of Lyon was closed, a member staff told me it wasn't so much because of Covid, but due to the presence of Easyjet in the same terminal, they don't want to mix passengers.

on board the A318

Walking on the left of this gate allows you to have a splendid view on the Q gates and our babybus of the day.

Aircraft: Airbus A318-111
Registration: F-GUGO
Engines: 2x CFM56
Age: 14 Years
Layout: Y131
Observations: Here is the very first unit repainted in the newest livery: the aircraft is named after a french town, the AirFrance title is as twice as big as previously, the "crevette" logo is more present and especially instead of the Skyteam Logo which moved to the rear of the fuselage, together with the AirFranceKLM group logo. 

The AvGEEK bit

With 18 units Air france is the main operator of A318s. The smallest airbus plane can carry 131 passengers. The A318 has a taller tail of 80 cm than the rest of the A320 family which has the same specs (12,79m for the A318 instead of 11,76cm for family). This is due to the efforts on ruddering as the plane is shorter.
Air France has ordered 60 A220-300s to replace both is A318s and A319s. 

Boarding started soon after and respected by order of priorities. As part of this new livery the "crevette" logo is now present where the Skyteam logo was painted.

View on the Hop hub of Lyon and the wingtip that has been repainted in blue, also with the "crevette".

It was also from this point when we pushed back that I switchedon the WiFi.  

For once, and due to the opposite winds directions, we took off from runway 17L. 

The cruise was really pleasant, and so was the staff. I apologise i forgot to take a picture of the catering offered by the crew.

There are still no paper magasines on board and so I read it on the app. 

We approached Paris Charles De Gaule very shortly after towards and made our way to the final on the runway 8R. 

at paris charles de gaulle airport

As usual, we arrived at the terminal 2F, the aircrafts operating within mainland France and the Shenguen area.

I arrived in the terminal building and headed towards the next terminal building lounge.