Trip report: Manchester (MAN/EGCC), England to Mauritius - Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International (Plaisance), (MRU / FIMP), Mauritius via Paris - Charles de Gaulle (Roissy) (CDG / LFPG), France. Friday 7th September 2007.

Flight Details: Leg 1
Date: 7th September 2007
Departure Airport: Manchester International (MAN/EGCC) Terminal 2
Airline: Air France
Flight: AF1669
Equipment: Airbus A320-211
Registration: F-GKXM
Destination Airport: Paris - Charles de Gaulle (Roissy) (CDG / LFPG), France
Seat: 24A (Window)
Scheduled Departure: 0910 GMT
Actual Departure: 0930 GMT
Departure Gate: 209
Scheduled Flight Time: 1 hrs 20 minutes
Scheduled Arrival: 1130 (GMT +1)
Actual Arrival: 1130 (GMT +1)
Actual Flight Time: 1 hr
Distance: 366 nautical miles
Arrival Gate: F63, Terminal 2F

Flight Details: Leg 2
Date: 7th September 2007
Departure Airport: Paris - Charles de Gaulle (Roissy) (CDG / LFPG), France
Airline: Air Mauritius
Flight: AF960 / MK045 (AF/MK Codeshare)
Equipment: Airbus A340-312
Registration: 3B-NAV (Kestrel)
Destination Airport: Mauritius - Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International (Plaisance), (MRU / FIMP), Mauritius
Seat: 41E (allocated – Isle), 41 G/H (actual - Window)
Scheduled Departure: 1630 (GMT +1)
Actual Departure: 1715 (GMT +1)
Departure Gate: C83
Scheduled Flight Time: 11 hrs 40 mins
Scheduled Arrival: 0610 8th September (GMT +3)
Actual Arrival: 0655 (GMT +3)
Actual Flight Time: 11 hrs 40 mins
Distance: 5858 nautical miles
Arrival Gate: 2


In the spring of 2007, I was thinking of somewhere I would like to go other than the usual Caribbean and European destinations for my September holiday. Although they are nice, I always like to travel somewhere different than return to familiar places. I have a wish list of places I want to visit and oceans I want to dive in, and one such place was ticked off my wish list in March 2007: the Pacific Ocean off the western coast of Mexico (refer to my trips reports: FCA012 & FCA013). The other main ocean I haven’t dived or visited was the Indian Ocean so I thought that was a good starting point. There are a limited number of direct flights from my local airport, Manchester to Indian Ocean destinations such as Goa and the Maldives so I considered what those destinations had to offer. Goa would be interesting but isn’t a great diving destination, whereas the Maldives are said to offer excellent diving opportunities but their remote location offers little to do other than dive and sunbath. I wanted a little more than that. My next options were the Seychelles and Mauritius. However, there are no direct flights to these destinations from Manchester.

Having considered what these destinations offered, I settled on the paradise island of Mauritius. This destination offers excellent Indian Ocean diving as well as plenty of other non-water based activities. The only problem now was how to get there. My tour operator of choice for this type of holiday is Hayes and Jarvis who are a subsidiary of First Choice. This company specialises in long haul tours from the UK. They provided a quote that I thought was quite reasonable and offered 3 alternative flights from Manchester: Air France via Paris, Air Mauritius via Heathrow and Emirates via Dubai.

I considered these options for a while, and after deliberation, plumped for Air France flights via Paris and booked the holiday for 2 weeks staying at the Le Coco Beach on the east coast of Mauritius. I went for Air France for a few reasons; it was the quickest route, cheapest, convenient flight times and the outbound flight from Paris was an Air France / Air Mauritius code share and operated by Air Mauritius. Even though these were big considerations, the over-riding reason for choosing Air France was the aircraft types to be expected. The first flight from Manchester to Paris is normally an Airbus A320-200, and the Air Mauritius flight from Paris to Mauritius is an Airbus A340-300. I’ve travelled on many A320’s, but this would give me the opportunity to experience the A340 for the first time. Similarly with the return flights. A Boeing 747-400 (Air France) operates the flight from Mauritius to Paris. This would give me the opportunity for my first flight in the jumbo and the late flight from Paris to Manchester is normally an A318-100 which would be my first flight in the baby Airbus. 4 flights, 4 different aircraft types and 3 new types for me!

A further consideration was it would be more convenient transferring flights with the same airline since we could check in from the initial departure airport through to the final destination. Travelling with different airlines, such as via Heathrow would mean flying with BA or Bmi and then Air Mauritius. Although this would still mean a ride on the A343, it wouldn’t give me a ride on a 744 and would mean having to collect luggage and go through the whole check-in process again at Heathrow. A prospect that didn’t appeal. The Emirates flights were £500 more expensive and a 4 hour longer journey time so they weren’t really considered, even though I’d love to have 4 flights on 777’s!!



Everything was booked and confirmed online with Hayes and Jarvis. It was just a case of getting the suitcases packed and waiting for the departure day to arrive now. It was going to be a long few months in waiting! I always like to take my diving equipment with me, including underwater video equipment but luggage allowance is always a sticking point. It was a little early to book extra allowances, so I waited until the tickets arrived. In the mean time, I checked out Air France’s website which indicated 20kg of standard luggage allowance but 10kg could be pre-booked for 20 euros per flight, so 80 euros return which isn’t too bad. Whilst I was on the website, I thought I might as well join the Flying Blue frequent flyer scheme and collect some air miles.



I received the tickets 3 weeks prior to our departure date as promised, which confirmed our flight itinerary and flight numbers. When I say tickets, everything was electronic with e-ticket flight tickets with access to Amadeus. Once I had my e-ticket reference numbers, I called Air France and explained I wanted to take my diving equipment and could I pre-book 10kg of extra luggage allowance. I was put on hold while our booking details were checked, but was told it wouldn’t be possible as the flights were booked through a tour company at a reduced rate. They said the only way I could take the equipment was by paying excess baggage at check-in. I worked this out to be 480 euros so I’d be diving with hired equipment and no cameras on this trip!!!

Finally, the day of the holiday arrived. The taxi to take us to the airport was booked for 0545 and he turned up bang on time. Manchester airport is a 60 minutes drive from my front door and at that time of day, the motorway network is quiet so we weren’t expecting any problems. The drive to the airport was uneventful and we arrived at Manchester’s Terminal 2 at 0645. We headed over to the Air France check-in desks (58-60 from memory) to be greeted by a representative of the airline to help us check-in. We must have been some of the first passengers to check-in for this flight since there wasn’t a queue. The representative tried to check us in using the self-service kiosks but it wouldn’t work for some reason so he escorted us over to the desk to check-in in the normal way. The check-in agent was very polite and everything was processed no problem. I gave her my flying blue membership number to log my air miles along with our booking reference number and passports and we were presented with two sets of boarding cards and a booklet explaining the transfer process at Charles de Gaulle. It was confirmed that we were checked straight through to Mauritius so there was no need to collect our luggage in Paris. The next time we would see our suitcases would be in Mauritius, hopefully!! I was pleased to see I was allocated 24A (window) for the flight to Paris, but disappointed to see 41E (isle) for the flight to Mauritius  



After check-in, we had approximately 2 hours before the scheduled departure of our first flight so rather than go straight through security to the departure lounge, we had a coffee in Starbucks. It was going to be a very long day, about 24 hours from leaving home to reaching the hotel with 13 hours in the air so we needed all the caffeine we could get!! After our coffee, we went through security. There was a little queue, but nothing excessive. It took around 20 minutes to get through which is about average for Manchester for that time of day. From 8am onwards, it has been known to take as long as an hour. As usual, I was searched. I always get searched. I must have one of them faces! I have nothing to hide so I don’t mind. It’s good to know the security services are thorough. Once through security, I had a walk around the departure lounge to see what aircraft were in and more importantly, see which aircraft I would be getting on.



The usual array of aircraft were being prepared; Virgin 747 for the Orlando flight, Continental 757’s for their flights to New York, Delta 767’s bound for Atlanta and JFK, PIA 777’s, Singapore 777, along with the many charter airlines A320s, 757s and 767s.



Our flight arrived on time at 0820, it would be F-GKXM taking us to Paris, an Airbus A320-211 as expected.

View Large View Medium

Photo © Darren Wilson

I had a quick look around duty free but we didn’t get anything since it would be cheaper purchasing things in Paris. Before we knew it, our flight was called for boarding from gate 209. The flight looked pretty full judging by the number of people waiting at the gate. Business class passengers were boarded first followed by those towards the rear of the aircraft (us!!), then all remaining passengers. First impressions of the aircraft were good. The blue colour scheme was quite smart and the seat quite comfortable with plenty of legroom (30” seat pitch) for the short hop to Paris. This would be the shortest flight I’ve been on in a long time, only 366 nautical miles. A First Choice Airways Boeing 767-300/ER was at gate 210 next to us. I’d returned home on this aircraft from Varadero, Cuba (FCA049) previously so I put my newly acquired ultra-wide angle lens to good use and got a photo of it!



Once everyone was boarded, the Captain made an announcement. Due to air traffic delays in Paris, we would be departing 15 minutes later than scheduled which wouldn’t be a problem since we had plenty of time between flights. The doors were closed and we pushed back as expected, 15 minutes late at 0930.



We taxied past Terminal 1 with a trio of A330’s; My Travel, Ethiad and Thomas Cook. I’d flown on both the MYT and TCX ships previously to Dominican Republic and Cuba respectfully.



We crossed runway 24R before lining up on 24L, entering the runway from tango link.



Once lined up, we stopped while an aircraft taking off in front had cleared. There were 2 people watching movements from ‘the mound’, a popular viewing location and were many of the photo’s in the database are taken from. I waved if it was you!!



After about 2 minutes, the CFM56’s spooled and we accelerated down the runway and were soon climbing. It was a very cloudy day and we soon entered cloud and said our goodbyes to north-west England for 2 weeks.



Our route to Paris would take us south-east through the centre of England, across the English Channel then directly in to Paris. It’s only 366 track miles so should only take about an hour even though Air France show 1 hour 20 minutes on the schedule.



The seat belts signs were soon turned off and as everyone were relaxing in their seat, I thought it would be a good opportunity to get a cabin photo:


View Large View Medium

Photo © Darren Wilson


We soon reached our cruise altitude of 30,000ft and I noticed we flew over London’s main airports, Heathrow and Gatwick. Just as we were over-flying Heathrow, the cabin crew served croissants with a choice of tea, coffee or hot chocolate. I opted for coffee. It was stronger than I normally like it, but then the French do like their coffee stronger than us Brits!



It was soon time to descend in to Paris. The flight passed really quickly. We approached the airport from the west and got some nice views of rural France and some cities on the approach.


View Large View Medium

Photo © Darren Wilson


The airport came in to sight and we gently touched down on runway 09L. Braking was gentle with some reverse thrust and we rolled to the end of the runway.



We then crossed 09R and transited several taxiways as we headed over to Terminal 2F. There were wide-bodied aircraft all over the place, I’ve never seen so many 747’s, 777’s, A330’s and A340’s in one place before! The dominant airline was Air France as you would expect.



After 10 minutes of winding our way down the taxiways, we finally reached Terminal 2F. The terminal looked like a building site and was just a shell at the moment. We stopped at gate F63 and the engines were shut down for a break. I’m sure they’ll be soon bursting in to life for several other flights throughout the day. Since the air bridges were yet to be installed, we disembarked the aircraft from the L1 door via air stairs. That gave us a great view of the aircraft from the apron. I couldn’t resist getting a quick photo!



We entered the terminal building and followed the signs for international connections. A quick look on the numerous screens confirmed our onward flight was departing from Terminal 2C and to expect gate C83. Transferring between the terminals was straightforward. We just had to catch one of the transfer busses running every few minutes. It took about 10 minutes to walk through the terminal to the bus area. The terminal was like a building site and the route took us around a series of corridors and walkways. I’m sure it’ll be a shorter walk once everything is finished. We caught the bus that has a screen inside giving information about transferring. There are 6 sub-terminals in Terminal 2 designated A-F. The bus service makes continuous circuits around the various terminals so you just jump on and off as required. The screen said it would take approximately 15 minutes to reach 2C from 2F. The bus was crammed full of transiting passengers but you get some great air-side views of the internal workings of a major international airport. All the different specialised vehicles carrying luggage, catering, spares etc and seeing large aircraft from this close while inside a bus puts the size of the wide-bodies in to perspective, they’re huge!

We finally reached 2C and departed the bus. Once inside the terminal, we had to proceed through security checks showing our passports and boarding cards. Our hand luggage was searched and passed through x-ray machines and due to the increased security restrictions, any liquids greater than 100ml in volume were confiscated other than those purchased and in sealed duty free bags. Guess what, I was searched again!! Now there’s a surprise. Once through all the security checks, we reached the departure lounge and I was impressed with the size of the place. You could fit Manchester in to a corner of it, and this terminal has 6 of them!

In all, it took approximately 1 hour from disembarking the flight to reaching the departure lounge in terminal 2C. You need to make sure you have plenty of time to transfer just in case. I just hope our baggage made it! Since we had over 4 hours between flights, it wasn’t a problem for us. I had a look for our aircraft at gate C83, but it hadn’t arrived yet. I just didn’t know where to look with all the heavy metal taxing around the place!!





Given it was lunch time, we decided to find a café, Ritazza 2C. We got ourselves a ham baguette each, with two cappuccino’s and a Pepsi and the prices were very reasonable given it was an international airport, 22.80 euros for the three of us. For those who have travelled through Dalaman airport in Turkey (and a warning for those that haven’t), it would cost this much for a burger, fries and drink from Burger King !! After that, we had a walk around the duty free shops. We didn’t get anything in Manchester because we would have had to pay a European tax (it’s not really duty free travelling through Europe these days) so we decided to get things in Paris since we would be leaving Europe and therefore the tax isn’t payable. Cigarettes were quite cheap, 25 euros for 200 if I remember correct. There was a Lacoste shop in the terminal and I couldn’t resist, I had to treat myself to a t-shirt since they are half the price they are in the UK!

Once we’d exhausted all the shops, we decided it was about time we had our first beer of this trip. We each had ½ litre of Carsleberg that was ice cold, lovely! After that, we only had 1 hour before our scheduled departure time so we strolled over to gate C83. I noticed that aircraft were now taking off to the west. The winds must have changed from when we landed. As we approached the gate, I could see a large red tail over the top of the air bridges with the characteristic bird logo – our aircraft had arrived on time which was good news. Passengers had already started to congregate around the gate area. I was excited about the prospect of my first flight aboard the A340. ‘Kestrel’, 3B-NAV, would operate today’s flight. She looked huge compared to the A320 we’d arrived on.



The flight was called for boarding on time. Business class passengers were called first then those towards the rear of the aircraft, including us. We were greeted by huge smiles from the Mauritian cabin crew on boarding the aircraft who directed to the rear and our allocated seats, 41 C-E. I’ve travelled on several A330’s in the past which share fuselage dimensions with the A340, but somehow is just looked bigger. I hadn’t realised when I looked at the boarding card, our allocated seats were the last row, 41. As the aft of the aircraft narrows, the seating configuration changes from 2-4-2 to 2-3-2 so we’d been allocated a row with 3 seats to keep our party together. Boarding was soon complete and I was surprised to see the aircraft was no more than 2/3rd full. The two seats to my right and left, 41 A/B and G/H were unoccupied. I was praying that no-one would take these so I could grab a window seat. I hate not having views of the world beneath and wanted to catch my first views of Mauritius from the air. It looked like some honeymooners were on the flight and a few minutes later, they requested to move from the centre of the aircraft to 41 A/B. When I realised no more passengers were expected, I quickly moved to 41 G/H to take the window seat. I was well pleased!


View Large View Medium

Photo © Darren Wilson


The scheduled departure time came and went and it was soon evident why we hadn’t pushed back yet. The captain made an announcement to say we had a puncture in one of the tyres which was being changed now everyone had boarded. Changing the wheel of a flight ready to depart for an 11.5-hour flight can’t be any meant feat. While we waited, I got some nice views of adjacent aircraft.


View Large View Medium

Photo © Darren Wilson


A 747-400 then pushed back from an adjacent gate, F-GISD that was operating flight AF962 to Mauritius and scheduled to depart 30 minutes before us. That was slightly late in departing and I’d look forward to seeing her again in Mauritius!





The tyre was changed in 45 minutes (great work guys!) and it was announced we were now ready to push back. It was 11 hours since we had left home, and we still had an 11.5-hour flight in front of us!! We taxied over to runway 27L. As we passed the cargo area with several Air France 744F’s lined up, I noticed the Air France Concorde on static display in the distance.



It took approximately 5 minutes to taxi to the runway and a further 5 minutes waiting for our turn to take off. Runway 27R, which is parallel to 27L was busy with landing traffic. It was strange seeing Airbus after Airbus landing on an adjacent runway while we waited. It made great viewing though!



The engines eventually spooled and we lined up.



After a short wait, the throttles were pushed forwards and we were off. The aircraft gently accelerated down the runway like we weren’t in any rush. Since we were at the rear of the aircraft, you could feel the aircraft move side to side as the pilot flying kept us on the centreline. After approximately 45 seconds, we rotated and gently climbed in to the overcast sky.



I’d read countless times about the slow climb rate of the A340, but I wasn’t expecting it to be as slow as it was! It seemed to take ages to reach the cloud base at approximately 2,000ft, and it took some time before we broke through the clouds. We made a long right hand turn to the east before making a second right hand turn on to a our south-easterly track for Mauritius.



The seat back IFE was switched on and the first thing we saw was the sky map. This showed very detailed information on our current position, distance and time to destination. The route would take us across France, down the western coast of Italy then across the Mediterranean Sea to Tunisia. From there, we would continue on a south-easterly track through continental Africa to Ethiopia / Kenya before heading out over the Indian Ocean to the south of the Seychelles and the Island of Mauritius. A distance of 5858 nautical miles.



Once we reached our initial cruising altitude of 33,000ft, the cabin crew gave out headphones for the IFE and a menu for the meals. We would be served an evening meal followed by continental breakfast. Drinks were complimentary, including alcohol.







As the flight wasn’t full, the cabin crew were swift and soon taking orders for drinks. I asked for a beer and was asked if I wanted French (Stella) or Mauritian (Phoenix). It had to be a can of Phoenix, you have to drink the local brew! My first impressions were excellent; it’s a nice brew. The cabin crew who served me asked how it was every time he passed and kept asking if I wanted another; this was going to be an excellent flight! The cabin crew gave out our green immigration papers, which we needed to fill in before reaching Mauritius. I thought I’d better fill it in and put it with my passport just in case! I then got myself a second can and sat back to watch the sun start to set. We were just passing over Sicily on the south-western tip of Italy before crossing the Mediterranean Sea.





Once the sun had set, I sat back and watched Road Hog with John Travolta on the IFE. The screens were only 5” so not the biggest but still better then the central screens provided by many airlines. As I also had seat 41G adjacent, I had that screen on the sky map to keep track of our progress.



The meal was served as I watched the film. I opted for the chicken in mushroom sauce, which was lovely.



After the meal was served, I had a walk in to the galley to the rear of my seat for a drink and the cabin crew just said ‘help yourself!’ Another can of Phoenix was soon being consumed back in my seat!

It was getting late by this stage and the cabin lights had been dimmed. I thought I’d try and get some sleep since I’d been up since the early hours and with the +3 hours time difference and overnight flight, I would lose a full nights sleep if I didn’t at least try. It was great having 2 seats to myself. I lead across the seats and with the two pillows and blankets provided, made myself a bed! I’m sure those up front in business with their sleeper seats were more comfortable, but it was comfy enough. It didn’t take long before I was in dreamland and managed to get about 4 hours. I can’t normally sleep on aircraft but a combination of a long day, 4 cans of Phoenix and 2 seats seemed to do the trick.



I woke up and the IFE said we still had 4 hours to go. We were just to the west of Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital according to the sky map. I couldn’t see anything out of the window apart from stars, and plenty of them!



I watched the IFE for a while then noticed the sun was starting to rise from the left of the aircraft. It was spectacular. The sky became a bright orange glow. I’d seen photo’s of dramatic sunrises over the Kenyan countryside which is exactly what it reminded me of. Then I realised, that’s where we were!! I managed to get access to a window on the left of the aircraft to grab a photo. There was too much glare from the window to get a good shot, but you get the idea.



About an hour after sunrise, a light breakfast was served consisting of fresh fruit, a croissant, baby bun, marble cake and jam and was very nice. It wasn’t much, but enough to fill a void before touchdown.



It wasn’t long before we started our descent over the Indian Ocean from our final cruising altitude of 37,000ft. The sound of the engines reduced as we slowly descended. All I could see below was scattered cloud and the deep blue of the Indian Ocean.





I hope the sky map was correct and the Island of Mauritius was indeed in front of us because there was a lot of blue and not much green on the map!! The seat belt signs were illuminated just as we made a right hand turn. We must be heading for the westerly runway.



We couldn’t have been more than a few thousand feet above sea level when I got my first views of the Island. It looked so peaceful with a barrier reef (couldn’t wait to dive that!) followed by inshore lagoons and lush vegetation. We descended over some hills which looked to be intensively farmed for sugar cane.


View Large View Medium

Photo © Darren Wilson


We gracefully glided over more farmland then the roads leading to the airport and airport perimeter came in to view. This is what the pilots would be seeing

View Large View Medium Photo © Julian Whitelaw

View Large View Medium Photo © Stephan Rossouw - FZI Photography

I felt the aircraft gently pitch up as we flared for landing. Touchdown was pretty gentle and reverse thrust was immediately applied.



The brakes were then applied quite firmly as we decelerated.



We rolled to the end of the runway and made a 180 degree turn to in the turning area before backtracking up the runway since there isn’t a parallel taxiway at Mauritius.



We left the runway to the left and slowly taxied to the terminal



We parked adjacent to the Air France 747-428 that had departed before us. I would be returning on this flight in 2 weeks time!



Once the engines were shut down, the seat belts signs were switched off and we were free to disembark the aircraft from the L1 door. I grabbed a photo of my seat while I waited for the line of passengers to move and remind me of my first ride aboard the A340-300.


View Large View Medium

Photo © Darren Wilson


I collected my bag from the overhead locker and made my way to the front of the aircraft, passing through the premium economy and business class cabins. Premium economy was similar to economy, but with slightly wider seats and a greater seat pitch. Business class was not what I was expecting. The seats were large with lots of room, but looked dated and well used.

A final ou revoir from the cabin and we made our way up the air bridge and in to the terminal. Just as we reached the top of the air bridge, another Air Mauritius A340-312 was taxiing in from London Heathrow.

The departure lounge looked quite busy as we walked passed. After a short walk, we reached the immigration area. There were lots of immigration officers waiting so it only took a couple of minutes before we reached the front of the queue. I handed over my passport and immigration card and it was stamped no problem. The officer was very polite and asked if this was my first visit to Mauritius to which I replied, yes. She said ‘enjoy your stay’ and away I went. As we left the immigration area, there was another desk to check on previous visits to other countries for health reasons. The person on the desk looked through my passport to see where I had travelled but there were no problems because I hadn’t travelled to this part of the world before, and more importantly, to African nations were malaria and yellow fever was present. Those who had travelled to these areas were required to provide evidence of vaccination etc to ensure you didn’t bring any notifiable diseases in to the country.

Once through these checks, I followed the signs for the short walk to baggage reclaim. This was the moment of truth; did our bags make the flight? The baggage reclaim hall was quite big with several carousels. Luckily, our suitcases were some of the first off the flight and we were soon reunited with them. Once we had our bags, we made our way to the arrivals hall and were immediately greeted by the Hayes and Jarvis representative. She had a box of flowers for women and a ring of flowers to hang around your neck for the men, a nice touch! It was easy to pick out Hayes and Jarvis guests!! She welcomed us to the island and gave us our welcome pack providing information about the island and details of our welcome meeting and rep service. She guided us to the exit explaining where to go for our transfer to the hotel. We exited the terminal building and made our way up the slope to the car park were a White Sands Tour representative escorted us to a mini-bus for the 1-hour transfer to the Le Coco beach hotel. A French couple joined us who were also staying at the hotel and we set off for 2 weeks of fun!!

In total, it was a 24-hour journey from leaving home to checking in to the hotel. It’s a long way to travel but well worth it when you have scenes like this on you doorstep:







Including a helipad!

View Large View Medium Photo © Darren Wilson

View Large View Medium Photo © Darren Wilson

To sum up, the flight from Manchester to Paris with Air France was excellent and uneventful. Even though Charles de Gaulle is undergoing a lot of building work, the transit through the airport to the connecting flight was straightforward. The flight from Paris to Mauritius was excellent. I would say it was one of the best flights I’ve been on. The aircraft was excellent, the cabin crew first class and overall, very enjoyable making it a perfect start to my holiday. I would thoroughly recommend Air Mauritius.

Sorry for the long trip report, but I like to be detailed! There’s bound to be things I’ve forgot. I’ll get round to writing up the return trip in the near future with Air France and the Boeing 747-400 / A318-100.

Take care and happy flying!

Darren