Flying from Rotterdam the Hague!
Rotterdam the Hague is one of three main Airports serving the Netherlands, its the second busiest behind Amsterdam Schiphol and it is a base for Transavia as well as seeing regular service from BA Cityflyer (which this report is about) and gets various charter and low-cost leisure airline services from TUI Netherlands and various Turkish carriers.
Compare to Amsterdam Schiphol, this is a very small airport, but its a popular option with Dutch flyers who want to avoid the hustle and bustle of Amsterdam Schiphol- the largest airport in the Netherlands and across the BENELUX nations.
Likewise with Amsterdam Schiphol, there is a small Panorama Terrace at Rotterdam the Hague Airport but unlike the Amsterdam Terrace, this one is a small seating area behind a glass panel, but its great for overlooking the airliners at Rotterdam- mostly Boeing 737s. There is an airside & landside area for the Terrace, and the airside part is a great on a good day like today where you can plane spot and enjoy a nice Heineken before you fly!
It's a pretty compact airport terminal inside, so you don't have to walk far to get to your gates, but still leave plenty of time to get through the passport control to exit the Schengen Zone on flights bound for the UK or Türkiye as there are only four checkpoint kiosks at the airport.
Gate 8 that evening was all kitted out by Transavia in preparation for the new route they were launching the following day between Rotterdam and London Stansted! The UK hasn't been a major pulling point for Transavia compared to its owner KLM & regional airline KLM Cityhopper.
Gate 10 was assigned for our BA Cityflyer service back to London City Airport that evening. which would require us to have a bus gate to a stand further across the busy apron as various Transavia Boeing 737 flights to Europe were also getting underway.
Whilst we waited for boarding, a Sun Express Boeing 737-800 showed up on one of the stands by the gate, so it was cool to see a size difference between a Boeing 737-800 & Embraer ERJ-190.
Experiencing BA Cityflyer in 2025!
A short bus ride from the gate took us to our BA Cityflyer Embraer ERJ-190 for this evening which turned out to be G-LCAF, a 13 year old Embraer ERJ-190 which was originally built for China Southern Airlines as B-3139, it flew around China from June 2012 to August 2020 before ending up at the London City based operation of British Airways as G-LCAF as part of an order of second hand ERJ-190 ordered to replace their smaller and aging Embraer ERJ-170.
The golden sunset and clear skies over Rotterdam offered some nice photos as I boarded the ERJ-190, it appeared this flight was going to be a full or nearly full flight, which happens a lot as Rotterdam gets a lot of business travellers during the week from London City, plus its the only daily link to London as British Airways pulled their London Heathrow-Rotterdam services a while ago.
The flight was indeed a full house that evening, this Embraer was fitted with the new cabin layout, its very similar to the seats being rolled out on the more recent BA A320neo deliveries. I quite like the seats, yes the economy seats are more densely configured compare to before, but the seats are still nice… my only "complaint" is the lack of a USB-charging port in the seats- which are featured on the A320neo, but its a First World Problem.
We began our taxi out a few minutes late, but we would easily make that up on our short flight to London. Rotterdam still wasn't that busy as all the Boeing 737-800s had left ahead of us. My seat for this flight was Seat 7D, a window seat right by the engine!
I am not ashamed to admit I paid a little extra for this just for the amazing view- Plus if you have no status with BA- you get extra Tier Points & Avios when you pay for seat selection, so it makes paying for it a little more palatable.
We held by the Runway for a few minutes to allow a Transavia Boeing 737-800 to land and once he was off the Runway- it was our turn to line-up and get going. The take off allowed for some amazing views of Rotterdam on departure, this was going to be a beautiful "Golden Hour" flight as we darted across the North Sea!
Within about 5-10 minutes of taking off, it was time to bid a fond farewell to the Netherlands as the shoreline gave way to the North Sea…
Unlike the mainline British Airways, BA Cityflyer still offers a full bar service in Euro Traveller. There has been talk of going to a buy-on-board, but given the cliental at LCY and most of the short hops offered at LCY- I think the bar service they have now is probably best keeping.
If its not broken- don't fix it.
My choice was a savoury Sea Salt Crisps alongside a Johnny Walker Red & Coca-Cola… buying this same service on BA Mainline within Euro Traveller from the Speedbird Café would cost an extra £15 roughly…
The evening sunset and associated "Golden Hour" certainly delivered on this short flight, with no IFE magazines or Wi-Fi but I think this was worth getting the window seat for! Plus it would soon get better as well!
We eventually started to come up on the UK shorelines near Southend-on-Sea. As we approached the Eastend of London, the Dartford Toll Bridge came into view, after that it wasn't long before the sights of Central London began to appear! We were also commencing our decent into London City Airport as we didn't have to fly across most of London like we would have for Heathrow!
As luck would have it, our arrival was to be on Runway 09, which meant our arrival brought us in over the City Centre and all the major attractions that are in London. Being sat at a window on the right side was even better as I got to see some incredible views on our approach!
Tower Bridge, HMS Belfast, The Shard, London Bridge Station, Canary Wharf, London Skyline Cable Cars and the o2 Arena London- It was certainly an impressive few minutes!
We touched down into London City Airport passing the line-up of Embraer ERJ aircraft on the apron in front of the Terminal with airlines like KLM Cityhopper, LOT Polish Airlines, Helvetic Airways all preparing to head back to base for the evening, a single ATR-72 from Aurigny was parked up having just arrived from Guernsey and various BA Cityflyer ERJ aircraft were on stand for the night- ready for those 06:00am-07:30am early departures the following day!
We exited the Runway at the Eastern end of the Runway and back-tracked towards the Terminal for our stand. It was amazing seeing the London Skyline in the distance from LCY, we still had a great bit of "Golden Hour" left as we parked up. As we turned in I saw one last look at the line-up of Embraer ERJ aircraft further up the ramp. As we began to wind down and prepare to disembark- a Luxair Dash 8 Q-400 arrived in from Luxembourg.
Most the passengers seemed keen to race of the aircraft, so I opted to hang back and grab a few extra photos of the cabin nice and empty for this report. I love flying the BA Cityflyer ERJ's, but I don't get many chances as LCY isn't easy to access for those who live outside of London for departures- plus the fares from LCY are more expensive than London Heathrow or London Gatwick flights by comparison.
Leaving the aircraft, I quickly bagged a final shot of G-LCAF on stand at LCY. I didn't want to hang around to long getting a photo as LCY is not always very keen on aviation enthusiasts- mainly for security reasons.
I got through passport control pretty quickly as we were ahead of the next batch of arrivals that hadn't quite landed yet. I got a few snaps of LCY once I left arrivals as the security at the airport don't usually appreciate photos being taken… Its a short stroll to the DLR Train Station that serves London City Airport, it takes less than 5 minutes to get from arrivals to the station, then you just wait for the appropriate DLR Service, I needed to get to London Victoria Coach Station that evening, but it wasn't long before a Stratford DLR Service turned up and that's where I'll end this report.
Overall another good service on BA Cityflyer- its a treat for me when I get to fly with them. Flight was pretty much on time arriving despite being a few minutes late departing. It offered a good bar service for the short flight and London City proved its convenience for those flying to and from Central London. I look forward to flying from here again in the future!
Used to take this flight so often back in 2017 and 2018 when I used to work for my old German employer as those fares from RTM to LCY were really affordable and were generally just more relaxing to do compared to the ones from Amsterdam (which usually were double the price too).
Glad to see that service remained similar to what it used to be back then and I'd say that BA Cityflyer on regional routes is probably the best choice to fly BA at all..... Kind of weird to say that the best BA flights on regional level are actually those flights operated by an external party 😜
Thanks for sharing.
Glad I could give you a throwback! BA Cityflyer is the best part about flying BA in Europe in my opinion, especially if LCY doesn't throw a spanner in the works when the weather goes foul.