Much like last year, for the last week of the year I am going to write a review of the year detailing all of the flights that I have done this year. This year, while not being quite as busy as last year, I still managed to fly 13 times, on 3 separate airlines to 7 destinations. And so with that we can start to review the trip.
Once through security it was a relatively short wait before we boarded the plane, one of British Airways' A320s, on the flight to Berlin. Before pushing back however I was able to capture one of my favourite photos Iv'e ever caught which you can see bellow.
The flight itself went without incident and we soon reached Berlin Tegel airport, which I must say is one of the most unique airports that I have ever visited. Its dated design sees everything from security to passport control happen at the gate, meaning that the walk from the plane to ground side is extremely short, even if the design is a little impractical, and you are left queuing down the jetbridge waiting to pass through passport control.
After a few days in Berlin it was time to head back to Tegel for our flight back to the UK. At the airport I was fascinated by the old style flight boards, as well as the small gate area, which felt slightly too small and didn't leave much room to walk around in. The flight back to the UK was again on one of the BA A320 aircraft, this time however with the larger winglets. The flight itself was similar to the one on the way out and passed without incident until the very end, when whilst circling to wait for an opportunity to land at Heathrow we were able to experience some of the very best views I have had of London on the clear winter's night, the approach into Heathrow certainly cannot be missed.
Follow this link here if you want to hear more about this trip to Berlin:
Trip Report: Berlin 2019 British Airways European Economy
Whilst in Berlin, British Airways also announced the first of their retro painted 747 aircraft for their centenary and its initial schedules. With some time in the following week after getting back from Berlin I went up to Heathrow to see if I could try and spot it at all. Whilst this trip ultimately ended in failure, not being able to spot it, something that still holds true for all of the BA retros to this day, I did manage to see the Air Malta retro if that is any consolation at all.
About a week and a half later I was back at Gatwick however, this time to fly down to Seville on British Airways. The flight on the way out was on an A320 for the third time during the year, this time however it was upgraded from the A319 which would ordinarily operate the route down to Seville. On the plane I was seated only 1 row from the back in the window seat. The flight itself operated with out incident once again, and before too long on the plane we were down in the heat of the south of Spain.
The flight on the way back was a bit better. Whilst waiting at Seville airport for the flight back, I was able to see some brand new aircraft which I had not seen before, including the brand new Evelop A350 and an Atlas Air 747, unfortunately for which I had not brought my camera.
The flight on the way back was operated by an A319, which unfortunately was not the BEA retro liveried one which had just arrived at Gatwick a couple of days prior. Again with the window seat on the way back I was able to experience the sunset in-flight which was pretty spectacular looking back at photos of it. Once landed we taxied past the BEA which had frustratingly been parked up at the Airport all afternoon, drawing a close to my flying until the summer.
Follow the link bellow if you want to read more about the flights to and from Seville:
Trip Report: Seville 2019 British Airways European Economy
After a fair few hours of waiting around in the terminal we were soon to be on our plane to Toronto. The Toronto route by BA during the summer was one of their more interesting ones, being one of two transatlantic routes on their network served by multiple London airports, along with New York. In addition to this, one of the daily flights from Heathrow was also being flown with an Air Belgium A340 during the time at which we were flying, which would have made for a significantly different experience if we had ended up on that.
February
In February of this year I had my first trip away, flying to Berlin and back. Both legs were served by British Airways on their A320 aircraft. The flight on the way out took off in the mid-morning and having arrived at British Airway's Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport, before going through security I was able to fit in a little bit of plane spotting at the terminal before it was time to go through security.
Once through security it was a relatively short wait before we boarded the plane, one of British Airways' A320s, on the flight to Berlin. Before pushing back however I was able to capture one of my favourite photos Iv'e ever caught which you can see bellow.
The flight itself went without incident and we soon reached Berlin Tegel airport, which I must say is one of the most unique airports that I have ever visited. Its dated design sees everything from security to passport control happen at the gate, meaning that the walk from the plane to ground side is extremely short, even if the design is a little impractical, and you are left queuing down the jetbridge waiting to pass through passport control.
After a few days in Berlin it was time to head back to Tegel for our flight back to the UK. At the airport I was fascinated by the old style flight boards, as well as the small gate area, which felt slightly too small and didn't leave much room to walk around in. The flight back to the UK was again on one of the BA A320 aircraft, this time however with the larger winglets. The flight itself was similar to the one on the way out and passed without incident until the very end, when whilst circling to wait for an opportunity to land at Heathrow we were able to experience some of the very best views I have had of London on the clear winter's night, the approach into Heathrow certainly cannot be missed.
Follow this link here if you want to hear more about this trip to Berlin:
Trip Report: Berlin 2019 British Airways European Economy
Whilst in Berlin, British Airways also announced the first of their retro painted 747 aircraft for their centenary and its initial schedules. With some time in the following week after getting back from Berlin I went up to Heathrow to see if I could try and spot it at all. Whilst this trip ultimately ended in failure, not being able to spot it, something that still holds true for all of the BA retros to this day, I did manage to see the Air Malta retro if that is any consolation at all.
April
With April came around two further trips, both of which left from London Gatwick. The first of these was just a short hop over the channel to Jersey on easyJet. Both of these flights were pretty good as well, and were pretty much just what you'd expect from these flights. If I had to pick out one highlight from the trip it would probably be seeing Virgin Atlantic's 747 "Barbarella" at the same gate as I had previously seen her one year previously which I didn't realise until quite a while afterwards.
About a week and a half later I was back at Gatwick however, this time to fly down to Seville on British Airways. The flight on the way out was on an A320 for the third time during the year, this time however it was upgraded from the A319 which would ordinarily operate the route down to Seville. On the plane I was seated only 1 row from the back in the window seat. The flight itself operated with out incident once again, and before too long on the plane we were down in the heat of the south of Spain.
The flight on the way back was a bit better. Whilst waiting at Seville airport for the flight back, I was able to see some brand new aircraft which I had not seen before, including the brand new Evelop A350 and an Atlas Air 747, unfortunately for which I had not brought my camera.
The flight on the way back was operated by an A319, which unfortunately was not the BEA retro liveried one which had just arrived at Gatwick a couple of days prior. Again with the window seat on the way back I was able to experience the sunset in-flight which was pretty spectacular looking back at photos of it. Once landed we taxied past the BEA which had frustratingly been parked up at the Airport all afternoon, drawing a close to my flying until the summer.
Follow the link bellow if you want to read more about the flights to and from Seville:
Trip Report: Seville 2019 British Airways European Economy
July
Before we had even reached the airport in July our flight to Toronto had already been delayed. Flying out of Gatwick again, this time to Toronto, our flight received significant delays due to the aircraft having to be flown in from Heathrow that morning due to the lack of servicable long haul aircraft due to the 787 engine issues.
However once at the airport I wasn't complaining as it gave me plenty more time to roam around the terminal for some plane spotting, checking out every nook and cranny in the terminal beforehand, which had the additional benefit of the delay being increased to three hours, giving even more time to explore.
After a fair few hours of waiting around in the terminal we were soon to be on our plane to Toronto. The Toronto route by BA during the summer was one of their more interesting ones, being one of two transatlantic routes on their network served by multiple London airports, along with New York. In addition to this, one of the daily flights from Heathrow was also being flown with an Air Belgium A340 during the time at which we were flying, which would have made for a significantly different experience if we had ended up on that.
The flight itself however was pretty good once we were on board. Whilst the 777 that we were onboard still had the oldest version of the Club World cabin on board which we were in, it was still an enjoyable flight, and the upgraded soft product really does make a huge difference at the end of the day. The meal service was also a little bit slow which was slightly frustrating but the food itself was excellent.
On arrival in Toronto in typical BA fashion we were at one of the bus gates, however this wasn't the slowest journey in the world and soon we arrived at the slightly shambolic passport control for Canada, using machines that we had to try multiple times to work before we were let into the country but after a while we made it into the country.
Follow the link to read this flight's trip report:
Whilst in Toronto we also happened to spend a little bit of time down by their very own dockland airport Billy Bishop. This was quite a good time for me and did involve a little bit of sidetracked plane spotting while we were down by the docklands of the various Porter aircraft taking off and landing.
Having spent a few days outside Toronto we came back to stay at an airport hotel for the night under the flight path for Toronto Pearson airport, which of course I made the most of the opportunity being there.
However the next day it was time to down to Florida for a few days of sun. Once at the airport and through security I got to experience America's border pre-clerance service for the first time. On the face of it it seems like a brilliant idea, passengers clear passport control before they reach their destination so they don't have to wait when they arrive, excellent idea right. However from my experience it was far from this and slightly shambolic if anything. For starters when we went through we had a problem with the machines and were referred to see on the of the border officers. However once here we had to wait for an absolute age due to there simply not being enough officers. This is not a problem that was specific to us either as our flight ended up being delayed by just under an hour so that we could wait for 25 passengers to clear the border, with this time not even being enough for some of the passengers to make it either.
Once through we had a reasonable amount of time to wait around in the terminal which I mainly kept myself occupied by doing my standard amount of plane spotting around the terminal.
Once it got around to boarding it happened very quickly and after the delay, during which we were offered glasses of water. Following the safety demonstration, which I wasn't particularly impressed by we were taking off on our Air Canada Rouge 767-300ER flying down to Fort Lauderdale. For the flight itself I was stuck in an aisle seat, however with only one seat between me and the window, I was still able to get a pretty impressive view throughout the flight. Half way through the flight we were also served drinks, something I am not used to getting on short haul flights due to me spending most of my time flying in Europe where this no longer occurs. Once we had arrived in Fort Lauderdale it was just a short walk through the terminal before we were back out again.
Follow this link for a full review of this flight on Air Canada Rouge
Trip Report: Air Canada Rouge 767-300ER Toronto to Fort Lauderdale
After about a week's holiday in Florida it was time to fly back to the UK, again from Fort Lauderdale. This flight again was a first for me though as at the time I flew this flight it had already been confirmed that the route was going to be suspended in a couple of months time, so I was interested to see how busy the plane was actually going to be. However after arriving at the airport we had a decent amount of time before the flight itself so like normal I occupied my time by doing plane spotting this time with a magnificent view of the end of the runway at the airport.
After a while in the terminal it was time for the reasonably quiet boarding. The flight back to the UK was operated again by one of BA's triple 7 aircraft, however this one had the slightly updated club class cabin so the seats had power outlets in addition to the improved in flight entertainment, which for a flight later on in the day is in my mind absolutely essential. In addition to this I was also in row 1 on this plane which was a slightly different experience to what I am normally used to.
The flight itself was good with similar levels of comfort onboard to the flight on the way out to Canada. I was also fortunate enough to be able to catch a glimpse of the extremely short sunset over the left wing of the plane during the flight, which was also quite impressive during the flight. Once we had landed back at Gatwick extremely early in the morning and following an extended tour of the gates of London Gatwick, which gave a threat of a potential bus gate, we were back and off the plane once again back in the UK.
The flight itself however wasn't too bad as far as I remember flying on board one of British Airway's fleet of A319s based at London Gatwick, and as these flights normally are down to Jersey, it went relatively quickly and very soon we were over at Jersey Airport.
Whilst in Jersey as I normally do whilst down on the beach I try to do a little bit of plane spotting resulting in a couple of captures while down there.
The flight back was about a week later relatively early in the morning again on one of British Airway's A319 aircraft. For this flight I must admit that the boarding process was one of the fastest that I have ever experience, effectively walking straight from the departures lounge as soon as the flight was called to getting onto the plane without any wait at all, the fastest boarding I have ever experienced, which eventually resulted in us pushing back early which was a nice surprise.
After our arrival at Gatwick I was also fortunate enough to experience the brand new South Terminal domestic arrivals. In my opinion it wasn't the most impressive idea ever, with in effect it being a single conveyor belt placed in a corridor off to the side of the terminal. Most certainly though it was not big enough to facilitate for more than one flight at a time, which I am almost certain will have happened at some point. In addition to this when you made it out it also felt very much like you were walking around the back corridors of Gatwick, arriving in a check in area that most likely had not been used since the nineties you were then left to find the way out of there. Whether this new system is better than the previous bus I am not quite sure.
After a bus to the terminal we then spent the night at the Premier Inn at the north terminal, which was absolutely find for the night and I even managed to find some windows with views with of the airfield which would have been quite nice if it wasn't night time so the lighting wasn't goof enough.
The following morning regardless we ended up going across to the terminal where after picking up a quick breakfast from W.H.Smiths we headed down to the gate where we ended up having an extended wait due to our plane spending a little too long in overnight maintenance followed by having to wait to receive clearance to taxi across the airfield gave us a little delay to start our morning.
The passenger's reactions to this however was interesting to see, even before the delay was announced, there was a pretty reasonable sized queue waiting to board, despite the fact that a quick glance outside the window would tell you that the plane was quite obviously not there. Even following the announcement that the flight was going to be delayed rather than sitting down to wait, they kept up their wait in the queue for some reason that is beyond me.
Eventually the plane arrived, and almost as soon as it came into sight the gate agents, probably a bit annoyed that they had had to wait for it to arrive rather than being able to go off on a break, managed to rush everyone through in rapid time, resulting in a rather significant ten minute wait on the jet bridge while the crew prepared on board, having barely made it through before us. Once on board however the flight passed relatively without incident, making it down in Jersey having only missed the first ten minutes of the rugby world cup quarter final.
The flight back however was even more magnificent. Having arrived at the airport having had to turn back to the house to get the tickets that had been left behind, we headed straight down to the gate as soon as we arrived,and while waiting there I had an inkling that boarding was going to be quite good. While boarding which came with the added benefit of being through steps at either end of the aircraft, was one of the most beautiful sunsets that I had experienced, all happening while I boarded an orange aircraft anyway. This combination lead to some stunning photos while boarding, and once on the aircraft the sunset got a little bit more orange before disappearing completely by the time we had pushed back. This however did mean that I got some nice views of Jersey as we climbed up to cruising altitude. The approach to Gatwick however was nowhere near as impressive, mainly being over farmers fields at night there is absolutely nothing to see, almost a complete contrast of the Heathrow approach I had flown on earlier in the year.
Once we had arrived in Gatwick, we had a little taxi down to our gate, past the last couple of Thomas Cook aircraft that had been there since their collapse a few weeks earlier, we arrived at our gate. The problem with this was that rather than taking one of the numerous domestic gates that would have been unoccupied at the time, instead we were sent to one of the distant corners of the terminal again to be bussed into the baggage reclaim, frustrating enough on the back of a flight that had already arrived that late in the evening.
And with that, that's all the flying that I have done this year. Whilst maybe there are not quite as many destinations that I would have liked this year, I am still pretty happy with the flying that I have done and the places I have been to. Looking ahead to next year, it is most likely to be a slow start to the year however by the time it comes to the summer I am hoping to have quite a few memorable experiences and amazing flights that I am looking forward to next year.
Here's to the next year.
Follow this link for a full review of this flight on Air Canada Rouge
Trip Report: Air Canada Rouge 767-300ER Toronto to Fort Lauderdale
After about a week's holiday in Florida it was time to fly back to the UK, again from Fort Lauderdale. This flight again was a first for me though as at the time I flew this flight it had already been confirmed that the route was going to be suspended in a couple of months time, so I was interested to see how busy the plane was actually going to be. However after arriving at the airport we had a decent amount of time before the flight itself so like normal I occupied my time by doing plane spotting this time with a magnificent view of the end of the runway at the airport.
After a while in the terminal it was time for the reasonably quiet boarding. The flight back to the UK was operated again by one of BA's triple 7 aircraft, however this one had the slightly updated club class cabin so the seats had power outlets in addition to the improved in flight entertainment, which for a flight later on in the day is in my mind absolutely essential. In addition to this I was also in row 1 on this plane which was a slightly different experience to what I am normally used to.
The flight itself was good with similar levels of comfort onboard to the flight on the way out to Canada. I was also fortunate enough to be able to catch a glimpse of the extremely short sunset over the left wing of the plane during the flight, which was also quite impressive during the flight. Once we had landed back at Gatwick extremely early in the morning and following an extended tour of the gates of London Gatwick, which gave a threat of a potential bus gate, we were back and off the plane once again back in the UK.
August
In August I was once again back at Gatwick for another flight, once again going back over to Jersey but this time on British Airways rather than easyJet as I had done earlier in the year. Whilst we were here waiting for our flight I experienced one of my highlights of the year, as while I was doing my regular bit of plane spotting, a completely unexpected aircraft started taxiing down towards me, that plane being Virgin's freshly delivered A350-1000, which had only arrived at Gatwick a few days previously and was at that time yet to be put into regular commercial service. Before she left to fly up to Glasgow I was able to get a few photos however at the point I moved spots to try and get a better angle of her, she started to line up on the runway for takeoff and I didn't quite get the dream shot that I was hoping for.
The flight itself however wasn't too bad as far as I remember flying on board one of British Airway's fleet of A319s based at London Gatwick, and as these flights normally are down to Jersey, it went relatively quickly and very soon we were over at Jersey Airport.
Whilst in Jersey as I normally do whilst down on the beach I try to do a little bit of plane spotting resulting in a couple of captures while down there.
The flight back was about a week later relatively early in the morning again on one of British Airway's A319 aircraft. For this flight I must admit that the boarding process was one of the fastest that I have ever experience, effectively walking straight from the departures lounge as soon as the flight was called to getting onto the plane without any wait at all, the fastest boarding I have ever experienced, which eventually resulted in us pushing back early which was a nice surprise.
After our arrival at Gatwick I was also fortunate enough to experience the brand new South Terminal domestic arrivals. In my opinion it wasn't the most impressive idea ever, with in effect it being a single conveyor belt placed in a corridor off to the side of the terminal. Most certainly though it was not big enough to facilitate for more than one flight at a time, which I am almost certain will have happened at some point. In addition to this when you made it out it also felt very much like you were walking around the back corridors of Gatwick, arriving in a check in area that most likely had not been used since the nineties you were then left to find the way out of there. Whether this new system is better than the previous bus I am not quite sure.
October
To finish off my flights for the year, towards the end of October I had another short hop over to Jersey. As we were planning on getting the early morning flight the following morning, as that combined with the airport hotel was still cheaper than the flight that evening, we arrived at the North Terminal long stay car park quite late in the evening where we were greeted by some rather interesting bus stops whilst their other ones were under construction, which just consisted of some fencing placed out on the road.After a bus to the terminal we then spent the night at the Premier Inn at the north terminal, which was absolutely find for the night and I even managed to find some windows with views with of the airfield which would have been quite nice if it wasn't night time so the lighting wasn't goof enough.
The following morning regardless we ended up going across to the terminal where after picking up a quick breakfast from W.H.Smiths we headed down to the gate where we ended up having an extended wait due to our plane spending a little too long in overnight maintenance followed by having to wait to receive clearance to taxi across the airfield gave us a little delay to start our morning.
The passenger's reactions to this however was interesting to see, even before the delay was announced, there was a pretty reasonable sized queue waiting to board, despite the fact that a quick glance outside the window would tell you that the plane was quite obviously not there. Even following the announcement that the flight was going to be delayed rather than sitting down to wait, they kept up their wait in the queue for some reason that is beyond me.
Eventually the plane arrived, and almost as soon as it came into sight the gate agents, probably a bit annoyed that they had had to wait for it to arrive rather than being able to go off on a break, managed to rush everyone through in rapid time, resulting in a rather significant ten minute wait on the jet bridge while the crew prepared on board, having barely made it through before us. Once on board however the flight passed relatively without incident, making it down in Jersey having only missed the first ten minutes of the rugby world cup quarter final.
The flight back however was even more magnificent. Having arrived at the airport having had to turn back to the house to get the tickets that had been left behind, we headed straight down to the gate as soon as we arrived,and while waiting there I had an inkling that boarding was going to be quite good. While boarding which came with the added benefit of being through steps at either end of the aircraft, was one of the most beautiful sunsets that I had experienced, all happening while I boarded an orange aircraft anyway. This combination lead to some stunning photos while boarding, and once on the aircraft the sunset got a little bit more orange before disappearing completely by the time we had pushed back. This however did mean that I got some nice views of Jersey as we climbed up to cruising altitude. The approach to Gatwick however was nowhere near as impressive, mainly being over farmers fields at night there is absolutely nothing to see, almost a complete contrast of the Heathrow approach I had flown on earlier in the year.
Once we had arrived in Gatwick, we had a little taxi down to our gate, past the last couple of Thomas Cook aircraft that had been there since their collapse a few weeks earlier, we arrived at our gate. The problem with this was that rather than taking one of the numerous domestic gates that would have been unoccupied at the time, instead we were sent to one of the distant corners of the terminal again to be bussed into the baggage reclaim, frustrating enough on the back of a flight that had already arrived that late in the evening.
And with that, that's all the flying that I have done this year. Whilst maybe there are not quite as many destinations that I would have liked this year, I am still pretty happy with the flying that I have done and the places I have been to. Looking ahead to next year, it is most likely to be a slow start to the year however by the time it comes to the summer I am hoping to have quite a few memorable experiences and amazing flights that I am looking forward to next year.
Here's to the next year.
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