Hi folks,

This trip report is about my flights to the a.net meeting at Frankfurt airport: on my way to Frankfurt I took a Ryanair flight to Hahn, and back to Madrid I took Lan’s A340.

I describe also the funny and hilarious boarding situation on the Ryanair flight (apparently due to AENA’s fault). Keep reading.

My flight to Hahn:
FR5454 on the 8th July 2011
Scheduled departure: 20.25
Actual departure: 21.00
Scheduled and actual arrival: 22.50

The journey began on Friday afternoon, when I took the commuter train from the railway station in Tres Cantos.



I took this train to the station of Nuevos Ministerios, in Madrid, where I took the Metro straight to terminal 1.



Metro station at terminal 1



There is about a 10-minutes walk from the Metro station to the terminal 1. After going quickly through security, I saw the departure board: departure at 20.25 at gate C42 and boarding time at 19.41



This is the view of the gate C42, before any queue was formed in front of the gate. It goes straight to a jetway, as you may see on the picture.



At about 19.15 a queue was being formed. But at the time of the scheduled boarding time, and even a few minutes later, the queue did not move. The passengers were becoming nervous as the time was passing and as the flight could be delayed. Then, at the gate it was announced that the boarding was switched to a new gate, the gate C46. And the passengers, once they heard this, began to run across the terminal and even pushing people away in order to be the first ones in the new queue. All other people in the terminal were surprised and amazed when they saw the crowd running through the terminal with the hand baggage.

Well after running to the terminal, the new queue was formed in front of gate C46, in this case the gate was one without a jetway



Once we were standing there for a while, with the screen showing “new gate” for the flight, the Ryanair agent at the gate said in Spanish: “Well, I do not trust AENA, I will call them to confirm”. After talking on the phone and confirming the gate, the agent said: “The first gate was the correct one. Please return to the first gate”.

So all the passengers began to run again, now to the first gate, and all the other people passing by were really astonished. And some passengers were trying to overtake other passengers and trying to find the best short-cut in the terminal. We were now in front of the first gate, C42, which was showing “New gate” on the screen. Some passengers were sweating and some were saying: “This is a good exercise”



I was not at the beginning of the queue, but I guess many do not know that the two emergency rows in the middle of the aircraft have more legroom, so I could easily get a window seat at one of the emergency rows (row 16).

This was the view I had from the window



A lot of legroom in the emergency exit, row 16 (and also in row 17). Btw, the flight was almost full.



Easyjet planes in terminal 1.



.


View of terminal 2



An IB A340



View of terminal 4



An IB A319



Planes were heading towards the runway which is usually used for landings. The winds were towards the south, which is not so usual.



And we departed with a delay of 30 minutes. This is the view of Torrejón de Ardoz and in the back you see Alcalá de Henares.



View of the military base of Torrejón



Around Madrid



The rest of the flight was uneventful. I kept reading the Ryanair in-flight magazine and I did not order any meal. Also the passengers sitting next to me kept reading their own magazines.

During the flight, the captain said that we had good winds towards Hahn and that we would arrive on time, despite our delay of 30 minutes.

We arrived at Hahn, and we heard the trumpets announcing that our flight was on time. Actually to do this flight in just 1 hour and 50 minutes is really a good time. Also, as there is not so much air traffic around Hahn (no traffic congestion), we landed immediately. The Ryanair plane in Frankfurt.



It took about 5 minutes to get from the plane to the entrance of the bed & breakfast which is just opposite the Frankfurt Hahn terminal.



It is a very convenient hotel, with a very good price, just 48 euro per night. Also it is interesting that you do not get any key or card to enter the room. You just get a code number which is introduced on the numeric keyboard next to the room door. I took the breakfast as well, and the bus that connects Hahn with Frankfurt. It takes 90 minutes, and I arrived at Frankfurt at 10.15, at terminal 2.

I took the Skyline train to terminal 1, in order to meet Suryo, and after meeting him we went back to terminal 2, where the observation deck is located.



.


Spotting

Air Canada plane



Malaysia



American



United



.


Iberia A319 (my nickname here on a.net)



United



US Airways



Gulf Air



Malaysia



United



Iberia A319 ready for Madrid



China Eastern



Vietnam Airlines



.


Aerologic:



Air Canada



Lunch time, burritos at the mexican restaurant next to the observation deck. It was a good meal, of course Suryo or Flying Finn, among others would agree.



Cathay



Syrian



Air France



Air Transat




.


Really amazing, a great journey:



.



After the amazing visit to the observation deck, where we spent some hours, it was time to head back to Madrid on Lan Chile’s fight 905 and on its A340-300. The gate is D1. And Planehunter (Udo) was also travelling to Madrid on this flight.



The boarding is not checked manually before entering the passenger area, there are the readers and access doors (as in a metro station or in an office building access). Once the bar code from the boarding card is recognized, you go through.



And this is our plane CC-CQC



View of the business class



.


And this was my row, Planehunter was sitting behind me



Some artistic pictures shown on the PTVs



Legroom was ok



View from outside the window



Lufthansa Technik in Frankfurt



And departing to Madrid



.


.


The In-flight entertainment: we got headsets from the crew, but actually I did not use the PTVS and the entertainment as I kept chatting with the Chilean woman sitting next to me, and talking about Chile and Germany (I visited Chile in 2007).



.


.


.


We got the meal in this box, which included a sandwich and a Kit Kat.



.


PTV



The headsets were collected about 30 minutes prior to the scheduled landing, however due to traffic congestion, we were circling around for a while on the plane



Arrival at T4S in Madrid:



The A340 parked next to a B767 from the LAN group (to Peru or Ecuador).



.


And the trip ended here in Terminal 4. I went with Udo to the parking place for the hotel buses, and I helped him in order to cofirm the reservation for his hotel (where he would spend 1 night) and to find the right bus.