My European adventure is coming to an end today. The first flight of today will take me on a rare Airbus A321-100 of Lufthansa from Athens to Frankfurt.
Flight routing
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- 5LH1285 - Economy - Athens > Frankfurt - Airbus A321
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ATH Airport
Ah, welcome back to the good ol' Athens airport!
Let's check in!
As I always say, I don't like the mandatory duty-free stores after security.
Gate hasn't been announced, but according to my boarding pass (not pictured), it appears that I will board this old bird via bus!
Sure enough I will!
Boarding
Today's flight will be operated by a rare breed: D-AIRC, a 30-year-old Airbus A321-100, delivered new to Lufthansa on February 15, 1994, and named "Erlangen". It's the 7th A321 built, and it happened to be the 4th oldest plane in the entire Lufthansa fleet at the time, but as of February 2025, it's now the 3rd oldest. At the time of writing, D-AIRC was the oldest plane in the fleet still wearing the old livery, although it has since been painted in the current LH colors. Less than 100 A321-100s were built, so I'm glad to have the chance to fly on one of these before they go. Look at that old tail! It's crazy flying on a 30-year-old A321-100 only a few days after getting off a <1 year old ITA A321neo!
Onboard
Like the -200s, the Lufthansa A321-100 features 205 Recaro BL3520 "NEK" seats in the standard A320-family 3-3 layout. The first few rows are sold as European business, with more legroom and a blocked middle seat. My seat for today will be 20D.
Unlike some airlines, Lufthansa kept the classic PSUs, side panels, and even the classic overhead bins when they refurbished this A321!
The seatback contents were pretty weird: a safety card for Lufthansa's A321ceos (didn't spot any A21N safety cards this time), two air-sickness bags, two buy-on-board menus, and the in-flight shopping catalog.
Legroom isn't too bad.
Departure
After hearing some sweet old IAE V2500 startup sounds, it's off to Frankfurt! Goodbye Athens! I'd love to come back someday!
In-flight
Let's have a look at the BYOD IFE. A map is available.
The only entertainment available are podcasts and reading material. I'd rather have movies to watch, but I downloaded things from Netflix, just in case.
WiFi was available for purchase.
For a 30-year-old plane, the lavatory was in surprisingly good shape! Better than that brand-new ITA A321neo that I flew on a few days ago! Look at that old-school metal countertop!
I didn't decide to buy anything from the menu, but the free service consisted of a water bottle, followed by a Lindt chocolate.
Arrival
Almost there!
Welcome to Frankfurt!
One last view of the cabin. And, that wraps up my report! Time to catch my flight home!
