Review of Air France flight from Lyon to Paris in Economy

Frankfurter Rippchen did you say?

Hello Everyone and welcome to this new series of flight, that happened just before the second lockdown of 2020.
This information has some importance has direct flights with LH were almost none existants and you will see the way back is a bit of a funny one! 

This was a business trip, and I am lucky enough to let my company choose my flight..

Flying blue Miles earned with this flight: 713
Status earned: 2 XP
Air France doubling the XP status in 2020: 2 additional XP

This was the time (just last year) that there was none of the ready to fly and people checking your travel documents before flying, you could checkin online with the app.

I chose for the seat 16A, which usually is in the first half of the cabin but you sse on the babybus it is almost near the rear of the aircraft!

AT LYON - SAINT EXUPÉRY AIRPORT

From the beginning of the Covid Crisis, the airport shrunk to operate only from Terminal 2, up until august 2021 so for all this time the T2 wasn't just for Air France and friends; and despite that, you can see how little amount of passengers there was in between two lock downs..

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 2 years or so…  

As we were there a good hour before the flight I had the time to do some spotting of the plane, walking towards Hop hub…

And our bird of today… 

onboard the a318

Aircraft: Airbus A318-111
Registration: F-GUGM
Engines: 2x CFM56
Age: 15 Years
Layout: Y131
Observations: Air France is to this day the only operator of the 4 A320 family types, including the famous babybus. This particular unit has been retrofitted with Wi-Fi but not Smart and beyound cabins…

We were called to board on time; with the Skypriority respected, premium passengers were called first; and as you can see it was the recarro - low-cost designed recarro seats. No surprise there as the whole A318 fleet is equipped with them…
The cabin crew was clearly happy to see some passengers in this covid times and were really smiling (i guess, looking at their eyes not their masks!) 

Push back started after the announce of the captain and hence starting the old fashion way safety briefing.

And taxiing onto runway 35L… I don't know if you notice but they don't always take off from the tip of the runway, the firt third section (roughly between T1 and T2) is enough to take off even at Flex thrust.

V1..

rotate

et voila!

goodbye Lyon!

The tiny tiny tray table… Just for those of us who have never travel on a recarro seat… look how small the table is compares to the safety card…

In 2020 the service of Air France was drastically reduced to a hot or cold drink because of the covid crisis we were told; despite this, the crew offered a refill for those who wanted after the first service which is rare enough to be notified here on FR!

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

There were still advs for La Navette, not sure how long for this is going to exist…

The tradition of naming aircrafts is back at Air France and is beeing rolled out faster…

And here came the landing onto 26R

AT PARIS - CHARLES DE GAULLE AIRPORT

Arrival on the terminal 2F as usual..  

An A321 with the new livery…

And here is where I was awaiting my colleague to join me from Toulouse before our next flight..