This is a tripreport covering a daytrip I did to Poznań in September 2012.

On the evening of September 24th 2012 I was randomly looking at some last minute youth tickets with SAS for the 25th. I knew I didn't have anything to attend to the next day and that I could have the day off.

I was particularly looking at itinerary's including the reborn Cimber of Denmark, which was known as Cimber Sterling until they went bankrupt earlier this year. They now only operate flights for SAS, after having a lot of own flights while still being Cimber Sterling. I found an interesting POZ-CPH-ARN with a Cimber CRJ200 for the first leg and an SK MD80 for the second, priced at about 100 EUR. Good value, as these Cimber operated flights always seems more expensive than SK operated flights, and these flights rarely has Youth Tickets available (other than last minute). I pondered it for a while before booking though as the best option to get to POZ was by the Wizz Air nonstop ex-NYO for 60 EUR. Not overly expensive maybe but this flight can be found for as low as 10 EUR.

I had been a little curious to try Wizz though so I finally ended up booking these flights as I realized what I mentioned above, that these Cimber tickets usually are pretty expensive.
I added Xpress Priority Boarding to the Wizz flight so the final price was 619 SEK, or about 65 EUR.
Special mention to the new Wizz Air webpage. It was very good!

The itinerary for the spontaneous daytrip, showed with the help of Great Circle Mapper:


OLCI didn't work on my SAS flights, I don't know if this was due to a Cimber operated flight, the late booking, or the departure airport though.

September 25

As my flight was departing from NYO my first mission of the day was to reach Skavsta. This was done by first going by Commuter Rail to Stockholm C.

Waiting hall at Stockholm Central Station:


I grabbed some Brunch at McD's before I went across the street to the City Terminal where my prebooked Flygbussarna coach to NYO was to depart.


I soon found myself on the bus and a 90 minute drive later we pulled up to NYO curbside. This was to be my first departure out of NYO.


To be really honest I did depart NYO once before: Diversion And An Intra-City Flight! KRN-NYO-ARN (by deltamartin Dec 17 2011 in Trip Reports) , but that time I didn't even leave the aircraft so this would be my first “Proper” departure from NYO.

I had printed my boarding pass at home the night before so there where no need for me to visit the check in desk, which seemed to open 2 hours before departure.

I took a stroll around the landside part of the terminal, snapping pictures here and there.

FIDS:


Check-in hall:


Café:


I was in no rush so before I went airside I decided to sit down in the cafe area to do some work on my Sundsvall/Dornier trip report.

An hour or so later I decided it was a good time to head airside.

No queue for security but for some reason the metal detector beeped so I had to be pat down. It didn't really bother me though and I was quickly through anyway.

Airside of NYO wasn't terribly exciting. There was the obligatory Duty Free shop, which one was dumped in right after security, there was a bar/restaurant, there were a waiting area and then there were gates.


I sat down in the waiting area and just waited for my flight.

There was a delayed FR flight to Riga and another Wizz flight to GDN departing before my flight to POZ.

As the flight to GDN was getting ready to depart I went down to a window to watch some apron action.

Soon enough the plane for my POZ flight arrived and it was HA-LPZ that would do the honors.


Boarding was soon called, which meant that the Xpress boarders could go in to a room with a door straight to the apron while the “normal” passengers could queue up to board right after us.


W61972
NYO-POZ
Airbus A320
HA-LPZ



As we were let out of the apron the people were heading to the front door first. I was the first one to go to the aft door, snapping an under wing picture on the way:




I was greeted by the young male FA in the back galley, who wanted to see my BP. After looking at it for a second he gave it back and allowed me in to the cabin.

The other crew members where two more males and a female. All appeared to be around 25-30 years of age.

I grabbed a random seat on the left hand side, 28A became the chosen one.

View out my window:


The gray thin seat wasn't overly comfortable. The legroom was a little worse than I had expected.


The seat comfort was slightly better than on FR though.

The cabin was a little worn, but not in a bad condition overall.


The load was pretty good, as expected. I ended up with two seatmates, but I did spot a few open seats. I'd estimate the load at around 95% or more.

The crew preformed a manual safety demo with a recorded voice, and we soon pushed back.

We taxied to runway Two-Six.

NYO terminal as seen during taxi:


Lining up on the active:


We took off in a rather powerful fashion towards the west, but we banked to the left soon after takeoff, lining us up southbound to Poznań.


It didn't take long after takeoff before we entered the clouds.


These clouds remained on the sky for most of the flight.

The seatbelt sign were soon turned off and the crew quickly begun their BOB round.


I decided to buy Pizza flavored Bake Rolls and a bottle of sparkling water. Good value I'd say for 4 EUR.


The flight was otherwise quite uneventful, somewhere over Poland the layer of clouds were gone and some nice views of the Polish countryside were shown.


Here's Miroslawiec Air Force base:


Wingtip fences:


Safety folder:


Magazine:


We soon begun the descent for POZ, and the seatbelt sign was turned on.

Some urban views during approach:






We touched down on runway 10.


A taxi to a stand outside of the terminal followed.


Once parked we quickly disembarked to the waiting buses. I was surprised how quickly it all went, the Airbus was empty in what felt like no time at all!

My seat after the flight:


Leaving the aircraft:




I also spotted a Cimber CRJ200 from an earlier flight on the apron.

We were soon dropped off at Schengen Arrivals, in a very modern building.

Through the luggage reclaim I went and I soon found myself in the Arrival hall.


POZ has recently (and to some degree still is) undergone a major renovation. I guess it did so for the European Soccer championship this summer.

The airport was overall very clean and modern. A nice place to be. I did a little strolling around the landside part of the terminal.

Curbside:


I like this (and no doubt where we are!):


This is a part of a long row of unused check-in desks (most of them were behind me). I guess they are thinking ahead, which is good.


FIDS:


As I walked through the main (the one being used) check-in hall I saw a sign saying “Observation Deck”. It's not hard to guess where I went next.

Main check-in hall as seen on my way to the deck:


The glassed-in observation deck was quite a nice touch to an overall nice terminal. Well done, POZnan.

Here's the previously mentioned Cimber CR2:


And a view of the deck, with the plane that brought me here visible:


I soon started to get a little hungry so I went to a cafe where I bought a hot panini and a coffee.


Once done I just sat down in a corner where I waited for check-in to open. Meanwhile I continued to do some TR work.

Soon enough the time was 16:10, some 2 hrs 10 mins before the scheduled departure time, and I decided to head over to the check in desks to see if anything was going on.

The desks were just opening and with a passenger already at the economy desk I went to the Business class/Star Gold queue.

I handed my booking reservation and EuroBonus card to the cute girl working at the desk. She begun checking me in but she couldn't finish it since the system was still starting up. She apologized for this many times but I told her it was okay.

While waiting she gave me a lounge invitation without me even mentioning it, she also gave a brief description of where it was.


After 3-4 minutes spent at the desk I was checked in and ready so at this time I went airside. I received a boarding pass for both of my flights all the way to ARN with seat 10A on both flights (she had asked me whether I wanted window or aisle seats).

There wasn't much of a queue and I was airside in a matter of minutes.

POZ airside was really small compared to landside, the Schengen area was only a waiting room surrounded by a duty free store, a cafe and the lounge. The gates are just doors out to apron where buses wait.


The area was quite crowded but it was clean and modern.

It didn't take long to 'explore' so I soon went to the lounge.

As I entered, the lounge dragon was quite busy talking to a couple of other passengers but she quickly noted the lounge invitation in my hand so she reached after it and welcomed me in to the lounge.

The offerings were surprisingly good. Very nice drink selection with soft drinks and juices in bottles and cans. Hard liqueurs were also available in larger bottles for self service.


The edible offering wasn't the best though but definitely sufficient for a lounge at an airport of this size. It mostly consisted of cookies and such.


I spent the time at a seat where I had some semi-decent apron views where I nibbled on the offerings and spent some quality time with my laptop.


This was also the first time I tried a Polish beer.

View from my seat:


Apron action:


I soon saw the Cimber CRJ200 pull up to a stand on the apron. OY-RJJ was the bird that would bring me to CPH this day. It was in an interim livery, obviously “based” on the old Cimber livery.


After this I soon finished my business in the lounge and went to the gate, which was just a few steps away from the lounge entrance.

Gate area:


A few minutes of waiting followed, and boarding was soon called, unsurprisingly by the same people working at the check in desks earlier.

SK1754 operated by Cimber A/S
POZ-CPH
CRJ 200
OY-RJJ

I was positively surprised to see that they had Swedish newspapers at the gate as well.

I walked out to the waiting bus. Most of the passengers appeared to be of the business type.

Better view of the CR2 that would bring me to CPH, as seen from the bus:


It's a cute little jet.

We soon drove off to the parked aircraft where we waited in the bus for a minute before we got a thumbs up from the cabin crew to begin boarding.

I snapped a few photos of my ride to be as I walked to and up the stairs.




In the front galley I was greeted by a middleaged blonde female FA.
The other FA was a somewhat younger and also blonde girl. Both seemed very nice with lots of smiles, and they both seemed like they enjoyed their job.

I walked down the aisle to seat 10A. There was a business-type of passenger seated on the aisle seat already as I got there.

Once seated I was immediately impressed by the very good legroom! Far more than I had expected:


The grey leather seat was otherwise comfortable enough.

View out my window:


The cabin filled up pretty quickly, the load was good in economy, I think all seats where taken. The first 4-5 rows were Business class and Economy extra, both with a couple of passengers each.

Cabin view:


We were welcomed to “This SAS and Star Alliance flight”. I didn't hear they mention Cimber at any time.

The crew did a manual safety demo and we soon begun to taxi towards the runway.

Part of the terminal as seen during taxi, the observation deck is in the top half of the glass cube, a restaurant was downstairs:


Two Eurolot's, one ATR and one Dash, which one do you prefer?


We took off from the same runway One-Zero that I landed on a few hours earlier. The takeoff was quite powerful, and I was treated with some nice views over Poznan when we gained some height.




Shortly after takeoff we banked to the right and did a 225 or so degree turn to line us up towards Copenhagen.

We climbed and soon enough reached cruise.

Winglet shot:


The sky was soon covered in clouds once again. Seems like Poland was the place to go for sun on this day.




The service on this leg consisted of the usual SAS free coffee, tea and water. I just had half a cup of coffee.


The flight was otherwise quite uneventful.

Safety folder:


We soon tipped our nose down and begun our descent.

Through the clouds we went and when we popped out beneath them we were over Öresund, the water separating Sweden and Denmark.

On the Swedish side I managed to spot the shut down nuclear power plant at Barsebäck.


The weather wasn't the best, very foggy and some rain in the air.

Saltholm and Öresundsbron (The Öresund Bridge):


We soon touched down on CPH's 22L, and taxied to a remote stand outside of the low-cost terminal.


Parked at the stand, with an interesting neighbor:


A bus soon arrived and we were allowed to disembark.

My seat after the flight:


I thanked the crew as I left the airplane.


I walked to the waiting bus, which soon departed and brought us to the terminal. It dropped us off next to the base of the C-pier.

As I walked upstairs following the “Flight Connections” sign, I found myself right outside of the entrance to the SAS lounge. That was very convenient for me as it was my next pit stop.


The lounge agent allowed me in without any problems after I gave her my BP and EB card.

Nice model in the lounge entrance:


The A340 is got to be the bird that is dressed best in the current SAS livery.

Upstairs I went to the Scandinavian Lounge which was quite busy this evening.

I sat down in the buffet area where I grabbed some food. I had some chicken skewers which were extremely tasty! They were served together with sweet chili sauce.


Later on I had some other nibbles and accompanied them with a Baileys, while I also took advantage of the provided WiFi.


A couple of lounge views:




Soon enough I felt that the time had come for me to head to the gate, which was in the B-pier.

A walk through the shopping area of Kastrup was required to get there.


Once at my assigned gate B10 I figured it was still a couple of minutes until boarding, so I looked around in the vicinity of the gate area.

Nice neighbor on gate B8:


That SK973 to Bangkok is soon to be no more, at least during the summers:


Here's the bird assigned for my flight, LN-RLE:


LN-RLE was one of the two MD80s which used to be in special liveries, promoting Swedish domestic flights (if I am not mistaken). This is how “Kettil Viking” used to look like back in the days:

View Large View Medium

Photo © Dennis Lau

And his sistership LN-RMD:

View Large View Medium

Photo © Javier Rodriguez - Iberian Spotters


Apparently these liveries were called “tick typhus” by the SAS crews in the 90's.

Boarding was soon called though and I proceeded down the jetway as one of the first ones.

SK414
CPH-ARN
McDonnell Douglas MD80
LN-RLE “Kettil Viking”



I was greeted in the forward galley and I then proceeded down the aisle to my seat 10A.

Legroom shot:


Once boarding was completed I had a seatmate and I'd estimate that the final load was good at around 90%.


The crew preformed their manual safety demo and we soon pushed back and begun taxiing.

We took off from 22R in a classic MD80 fashion.

This was another uneventful yet pleasant flight. Comfortable as usual on these MD80's. I only had a glass of water during the service round.

Not much views outside, it was still cloudy over Denmark and Sweden.
A village lighting up the clouds, somewhere south of Stockholm:


We touched down on ARN's runway 01L and taxied over to a gate at the A-pier, and my last minute daytrip had come to an end.


To sum things up,

Wizzair was okay. They are an ultra low cost carrier, no doubt, but they don't smash it in to your face the same way as Ryanair does. Good value on the BOB-menu and a pretty good price for being booked the evening before departure. I could see myself fly with them again but I still find it quite annoying to go all the way to NYO so it won't be often.

The Cimber flight felt just like a normal SAS flight when it came to the soft product. The CRJ200 was a more comfortable bird than I had expected it to be and the legroom was more than adequate.

NYO was your basic low-cost airport. It has enough facilities and is everything went smoothly for me.

POZ was a nice airport, very modern with the recent renovations and I expect it to get even better if anything since it didn't seem like they where done with it just yet. Airside was the biggest letdown but it wasn't to bad either.

Thank you all for reading my tripreport, and please do leave a comment if you feel like it.

My next report shall cover some eastbound longhaul flying on my first 5-star carrier.

Martin