Route: London Gatwick (North Terminal) - Jersey
Airline: British Airways
Flight number: BA8041
Aircraft: Boeing 737-500
Seat: 01A (Club Europe - Business Class)
Distance: 161 miles
Duration: 35mins
Date: Saturday 16th July

View Large View Medium Photo © Matthias André Copar

View Large View Medium Photo © Ryan Hemmings

I decided to go and visit my brother who is in Jersey with his girlfriend over the summer and plumped for the weekend in the middle of July so the weather would be fairly good. Prices on BA looked pretty decent, indeed less than anticipated so booked myself a seat in Club Europe for the short hop over from Gatwick. Jersey is one route where you cannot pre-assign a seat so I waited until the day before and checked myself in online at lunchtime. Nicely 01A had been pre-assigned, something I was happy with and left it at that.

I had an early start the following morning and left home around 4.30am, parking in the Flightpath car park close to the North Terminal. The bus dropped me just down from the BA check-in area which despite being around 6am was extremely busy. Since I was flying with hand luggage only I opted for Self-Service Check-In and I even had to wait for this! Something I didn’t expect! The machine spat out my boarding pass and I headed for Fast Track security line that was well policed and indeed was faster than Plebtrack! The nice man even took my photo though seemed disinterested when I asked if he wanted my autograph as well!   I had no real desire to indulge in shopping, no matter how much BAA force you to walk through any of its shopping malls that masquerade as airport terminals and I headed for the British Airways Terraces lounge, possibly my favourite Terraces on the network thanks to great views over the apron.


Views over the apron

I settled beside a window downstairs with a paper and after a coffee went upstairs in search of sustenance. With cereal and toast to hand I counted the minutes pass as I waited for my flight to board, watching a small number of movements on the tarmac in the beautiful morning sun.



LGW Terraces upstairs

My boarding pass showed the gate as closing at 6.55am in time for a 7.15am departure although at around 6.50am the screens began to flash that boarding had commenced. I headed slowly for the lounge although got caught up in an awful scrum at the entrance for Gates 55-58. Some agents were checking boarding passes with a barcode scanner although one computer had broken down and the woman stood there like a lemon doing nothing. It later turned out she forgot the password for her computer login. The one remaining gentleman then started answering calls on his white courtesy phone which brought the whole queue to a standstill and as a result the crowd swelled rather fast and right back onto the moving walkway which could have proved interesting for those arriving behind me! The crowd was close to blocking those trying to get to other gates as well and this no doubt affected those boarding mine as well as other flights.

I thought I was amongst the last to board although as I settled into 01A it was quite apparent many others were caught up in the relative chaos at the entrance to the gates. I passed the time reading Business Life and High Life and watched as the four rows of Club Europe filled up behind me with the exception of my neighbouring seat 01C   Some people were even in the middle seats on the right hand side, something really is wrong with having the ‘E’ seat as an option in CE and I am glad I am savvy enough to avoid ending up there! Something BA could really do to emphasis the difference between Euro Traveller and Club Europe is to use this time for pre-flight drinks, especially on the short flights where the amount of service that takes place in the air is minimal. As expected the flight pushed back late and we missed our 7.15am departure slot, although with an estimated arrival time in Jersey of 8.15am and a 35min flight time we would probably get in on time. As the time passed I looked out of my windows and saw G-VIIO, the Chelsea Rose 777 that had taken A340600 up to MAN a couple of days before. Just before push back we were informed by the flight deck that some faulty electronic equipment up front had caused our late pushback although anticipated an on time arrival in Jersey. We then headed towards the east of the airfield and waited for a flybe BAe 146 to land before turning onto the runway for a swift departure. We never seemed to climb too high and I saw the coast approach, the view of Petersfield and the A3 heading down towards Portsmouth and the Spinnaker Tower. The sun glistened off the Solent and Southampton Water as we passed over and turned to the south just west of the Isle of Wight. The rather familiar Club Europe breakfast complete with compulsory grease in bottom of the porcelain dish   was passed out to us with fresh, hot bread, and altogether was almost thrown, not surprising bearing in mind how short the flight was! However I was grateful to get something substantial down my throat. I saw that Euro Traveller folk had some food taken back to them as well which seemed pretty good for a flight of this length. My brother often flies SOU-JER and vice versa on flybe and says they don’t get even a hint of a snack.


Club Europe breakfast (taken from another flight but it’s the same thing!)

After breakfast there was even time for a drinks round for which I chose champagne, well I say champagne it was Monopole Blue Top. I am no champagne connoisseur but found this even to be a step down in taste from the Piper Heidsieck that was served on my last CE flight a few months back, rather acidic! The trays were quickly taken from us as the northern tip of France appeared off to the port side during our descent. We banked around to the west and over some small rather isolated islands and the whole island of Jersey appeared ahead of us with the airport in the distance. We passed over the whole island in a couple of minutes during final descent and I got a rather brief view of what I was to expect in the my short stay on the island….a lot of country roads in quaint rural setting. The aircraft taxied round the terminal building and we left the aircraft by stairs at Gate 3. Thanks to hand baggage only I passed swiftly through the airport and saw the Avis man with clipboard waiting to drive me to my new Ford Focus with just 19miles on the clock!

Route: Jersey – London Gatwick (North Terminal)
Airline: British Airways
Flight number: BA8048
Aircraft: Boeing 737-500
Seat: 02A (Club Europe - Business Class)
Distance: 161 miles
Duration: 35mins
Date: Sunday 17th July

View Large View Medium Photo © Ian Haskell

View Large View Medium Photo © TZ Aviation

I arrived at the airport approximately one hour before the stated departure time and left my Focus, now with 100 more miles than when I was given it, in the public car park. I left the keys in the return box and made my way to the British Airways desks where I pleased to find a lone Self-Service Check-In machine. As I was otherwise engaged I was unable to use Online Check-In so was hoping that elite status would keep me out of the dreaded middle Club Europe seats. I inserted my BA card to find I had been assigned 02A, perfect, so happily took that and headed for security. The new Jersey terminal was impressive and appears they are well prepared for any increase in number of flights. I noticed a sign saying to only to proceed to departures area once the flight was called but thought my boarding pass and mention of BA lounge would be enough. It was not, and so I was forced to return to the BA desks to get a lounge invite! Now I wished I had seen a BA lady although by the time I got back to the desks a small queue had developed. I didn’t want to get in line to get a lounge invite so stood to the side like a tool with boarding pass in hand hoping I’d get spotted. The young lady next in line waved me ahead of her and I got my lounge invite….back to the security bloke who let me through this time! I entered the Terraces lounge which for an airport the size of Jersey was rather spacious and well decorated. I was rather surprised and settled down with a Grolsch and chocolate muffin!




Jersey Terraces lounge


The lounge already had a few people sitting down, watching Emmerdale or reading a paper. I found some BA literature which I flicked through and with a feeling of déjà vu realised it was dated Winter 2004! As in December 2003!!! Most of the other literature was of similar age, including surveys referring to Concorde! Found myself something a little more up to date to read and passed the time for the next 40mins or so with beers and spirits always in hand, only being interrupted by the odd flybe announcement and the roar of a landing 737 that was to be our ride home. The screens in the corner of the lounge showed our departure gate and that boarding had commenced although there was no announcement! A number of people began to leave the lounge and I joined them, much to our annoyance we approached the gate as a small crowd to find the small gate area crammed with passengers. I suspected the flight must have been rather full as I heard at least five people being told they had been upgraded, some even patenting the ‘I’m in Club Europe dance’, a more downtone version of the ‘I’m in First’ dance but signified by skipping joyfully across tarmac as opposed to jetway. Boarding was from both front and rear doors, and the flight did indeed appear very full. Of the three rows of Club Europe all 15 seats were taken and I presume judging by the number of upgrades the back was full. Why the upgraded passengers weren’t put in row 3 with the dividing curtain in front of them I am not sure, perhaps it was a catering issue….Anyways, it appeared I was in esteemed company with my seatmate being none other than Lord Carswell who was Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland from 1997 to 2004, we made pleasant passing comment as the boarding process continued.

Once again we pushed back late although our very conservative flight duration meant we would once again be estimated to arrive on time. We stopped at the end of the runway for some time when the flight deck buzzed through to tell us that some pesky birds were on the runway. We then began our take-off roll as the engines spooled up to bird chopping setting and within no time were airborne. We turned to the north leaving the airfield visible to the left hand side as headed over the English Channel.

The northern side of the island

The meal service was brought out very promptly and began with handing out of bread basket followed by, as expected, a cold salad with some kind of meat! This time chicken with I think mango and Lily O’Brien’s chocolate crispy cake for ‘dessert’. Fuelled with alcohol from the lounge I once again opted for Monopole…I am a silly boy!


Chicken and mango (?) salad

The salad was ok, and had balsamic vinegar    although the chicken tasted a little like drumstick meat! Not enough time for a second drinks round and soon we were over the south coast and heading east, just south of Gatwick, as we descended we banked round the west and began our approach. Off to the left I saw an innovative advertisement for Lynx. A bastardised version of the chalk drawings of the Cerne Abbas Giant with one woman either side of the man with the caption ‘Lynx. Spray more. Get More’. Certainly a novel way of advertising!

We landed and came to a stop rather abruptly with clear views of a number of aircraft in the hangars to the south of the runway including Ghana Airways DC-10 and the BA757 with mis-aligned rudder, perhaps this aircraft will finally get the new rudder fitted!


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Photo © Barrie Lewis


As we taxied for round to the North Terminal with the sun setting I could watch aircraft departing and banking around. Gatwick is an interesting airport to arrive at thanks to the great variety of aircraft on offer. It isn’t very often you get to see a DAS Air Cargo DC10, Phuket Air 747 or anything other than BA aircraft at LHR! Anyways I digress…..we parked up on stand and passed through to landside with no troubles at all. All that was left was to get the bus back to Flightpath and drive home.
Overall a very pleasant flight, the service was pretty decent considering how short the flight was and I was rather impressed with Jersey airport, very clean and an excellent Terraces lounge.

Next flight:
27th July: BA7863 Southampton-Edinburgh British Airways ERJ-145