return from italian holidays
After a month-long stay at my home in Florence, Tuscany (Italy), it was time to return to Paris. I decided to opt for a round trip ticket with Air France this time. Both of my flights were on their Airbus A318, which is affectionately referred to as the 'baby-bus'.
Enchainement de vols
- 1AF1366 - Economy - Paris CDG > Firenze FLR - Airbus A318
- 2AF1567 - Economy - Firenze FLR > Paris CDG - Airbus A318
arrival at the airport and other flights
Got to the airport around 1:30 pm, plane's taking off at 3:20 pm. Had just enough time to grab one last Italian coffee, check in my luggage, and head to the boarding area. Today, they're boarding through Gate 3, then we're catching a bus to get to the plane.
The flight was delayed by 35 minutes because of a delay from its previous flight coming from Paris CDG, so we waited a bit in the hall. Boarding was scheduled at 14:50LT but finally we did it at 15:25LT. The aircraft was parked in a different area: where are usually placed the private jets in FLR. So we had the occasion to cross most of the parking zone and part of the runway, as well as spotting some other aircraft ;)
Alitalia Airbus A319 off to Rome FCO - AZ1682
British Airways Embraer E190 off to London City LCY - BA3280
Air Dolomiti Embraer E195 off to Munich MUC - EN8197
And finally our today's ride, Air France A318 - AF1567! A 17 years old aircraft delivered to Air France in April 2006. One of the 7 remaining Airbus A318s in AFR fleet.
boarding
Got our boarding pass, checked out the cool plane, and now we're aboard! Like told earlier, we were slightly behind our expected takeoff time. But thanks to the efficient crew, the delay was minimized as much as they could. ;)
My seat was 11A with a nice view on the wing! The legroom space is good for a 1h25-flight and had an empty seat just next to me this time.
A view on the Luxair - De Havilland DH8D from Luxembourg LUX.
departure
We finally took off from Firenze at 15:57LT and climbed out with an early right turn (departure procedure for the runway 23) with some turbulences previously announced by the captain.
route and onboard service
Onboard service started about 25/30 minutes after we took off. A choice between two sandwiches and a soft drink were offered as we crossed the Alps, eastern France cities such as Dijon and Troyes at 38.000 feet, before starting our descent into Paris.
The interior of the aircraft was clean and the cabin crew were very kind and smiley!
approach, landing and gate arrival
We started our descent approximately 35 minutes upon landing flying over the French capital city.
Landed at 17:29LT with a 20 minutes delay and taxied to the CDG terminal 2F in a warm and beautiful evening in Paris.
Just snapped one last pic from the window of the shiny new ITA Airways A320neo jetting off to Rome FCO!
Nice to be able to fly the rare BabyBus A318 while they're still around! A free sandwhich on a 1.5h flight is as good as Y service gets within Europe anymore, with so many carriers doing buy on board...there's a rumour that AF and KL may go to BOB as well, so we'll see. If they do, I hope they keep the free offering and have other options to buy, perhaps hot options.
Thanks for sharing!
In fact! Think the same of you about the A318 ;)
We'll see what future's got for us!
Thank you very much for your comment, really appreciate it and hope to read some of your FR very soon!