and bienvenidos to another report involving my time in Madrid in fall of 2021/22. As promised last time I actually got down to writing up some more reports about the flights I took then, so here's number 2 (out of 3 for now).
The university I studied at during the study abroad stay I reported on in my most recent TR installment had an interesting exam schedule where lectures would end in early-mid December, followed by some exams in the subsequent week and then a few weeks of Christmas break.
The remaining exams would be due over the course of January. I decided to go home between those two exam blocks to spend the holidays with my family and friends. The two flights were booked individually as one-way fares, since with a lot of uncertainty around exam dates and covid travel rules I didn’t want to block fixed days long in advance, especially for the return after New Year’s which I ended up booking just 8 days before flying. Thus, my MAD-FRA-MAD round trip ended up being on Lufthansa and Air Europa. Initially, the MAD-FRA segment was to be operated by an A321neo which would’ve been a new type for me but it got changed to a regular 321 a few weeks before.
After weathering a last-minute covid scare, courtesy of one of my roommates, I packed my things the night of December 17th, ready for a relaxed departure the next morning. I got to sleep in, had breakfast and cleaned up my room before leaving my apartment in Madrid’s south-of-center neighborhood of Legazpi. Flying out of T2, I opted for a trip to the airport entirely on the metro, using the L6 and L8 to the airport where I arrived around 11:20, or 50 minutes after stepping out of the door of my room. I walked over to LH’s check-in and bagdrop counters, where there was a line that took about 15 minutes to clear. Online check-in hadn’t been available, as they wanted to verify my vaccination records, but that way I got a cardstock boarding pass out of the deal.
On the metro
Lufthansa Group check-in desks at Madrid-Barajas
After that I made my way to security where there was a short line too, but around 12:00 noon I was airside and just decided to walk around, find a quiet gate and get some work done on my computer. I settled into what I think is the only redeeming part of the T1-2-3 complex at its northern end, before later having to make the walk back to the decidedly less nice parts of T2 where my flight was to board from gate D64 at 13:00.
First views airside with carriers from some fellow Mediterranean countries
And the aforementioned nicest section of Barajas' T1-2-3 complex
My plane taxiing in after its arrival from Frankfurt
When I arrived, there was already a line forming even though boarding began quite a bit delayed (owing to a late arrival of the inbound flight), at 13:14. Nonetheless, it was a rather quick boarding process, as doors were closed not too long after I made my way to my seat, at 13:31.
The departure gate for today's flight
18/12/2021 – Lufthansa flight LH1113
MAD – FRA
Scheduled flight time
- 13:30 – 16:05 (2hr 35min)
- 13:57 – 15:54 (1hr 57min)
- 13:41 – 15:58 (2hr 17min)
- Airbus A321-231 (D-AISJ), 13.9 years at time of flight
- 34F, Window, Economy
About to step onboard D-AISJ
The cabin looked nice and bright this sunny afternoon and the legroom struck me as better than on Iberia’s A20N a few weeks earlier. Later on, IB would score some points in comparison though. We pushed back about 10 minutes after closing the doors, before taxiing out toward our departure runway (36R) at 13:47. Said taxi took a little less than 10 minutes, and without any aircraft ahead of us to hold short for, we took off into clear skies at 13:57.
Cabin view and legroom at seat 34F
And a view at the shades of blue outside the window
Taxiing out for departure, passing a Privilege Style 757-200
Take off from runway 36R and initial climb
According to the Captain’s PA announcement before departure, we were to take the “Gourmet’s route” home, flying over La Rioja, Bordeaux, Cognac, Paris and Champagne. And indeed, this flight did not disappoint. Due to the clear weather all the way up until past Paris I had some amazing views of Norther Spain and Western France, with the Pyrenees’ snow-capped mountains staying in sight far away until a few minutes before reaching Paris. Later on into the flight, as clouds had already begun obscuring the direct views below, I was even able to spot the Alps as we tracked eastward over Champagne and Lorraine, some 400 kilometers due south. This was spectacular and made me enjoy the flight to the fullest, despite an onboard service by LH that was quite disappointing – only a small bottle of water, with no other choice of drinks, and a tiny chocolate bar. Also, this flight was to my surprise not equipped with wifi, meaning that there was no page to be opened with data on the flight’s progress. Despite that, the cabin was calm and clean and the flight thoroughly enjoyable.
Snow-capped mountains in Northern Spain
The beautiful city of Donostia/San Sebastián in the Basque Country. The round bay is fittingly called "Kontxa" or conch and is home to a hugely popular beach right in the middle of the city
Irún and Hendaye - neighboring cities in Spain and France only separated by one river. On the right-hand side of the bay is the runway of San Sebastián's airport (EAS)
Seeing our own contrail form behind the wing
The Atlantic coast in the French Landes region
Bordeaux, France
The southern reaches of Paris, with ORY airport visible in the center below the wing
Around 15:30, or just about an hour and a half into the flight, over Eastern France we initiated our descent, followed by a surprisingly straightforward arrival into FRA from the West, landing on runway 07R at 15:54, after less than 2 hours in the air.
Golden hour light above the clouds during initial descent - in the second picture you can faintly make out the Alps all the way at the horizon
Already on final approach with runway 18 in sight
Planes parked at the Terminal 3 construction site
A short taxi followed, as we parked at a hard stand outside of the C/D connector, from where I got to deboard via the rear airstairs into a dreary and cold German December afternoon.
At our parking position
Last views of today's ride during deboarding
A quick airport tour later and we reached an underground bus stop below Terminal 1 at 16:10, from where at least the walk to baggage claim was short and my bags arrived quite swiftly, meaning that the overall time from deboarding to exiting airside wasn’t actually all that bad by FRA standards.
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After a few weeks at home duty was calling (in the shape of the final exams I still had outstanding as well as two of my German friends who wanted to come visit in Madrid).
Therefore, at the very end of 2021, I had finally booked my return for the first week of 2022, opting for a flight on a new carrier (Air Europa), although that had largely been a pragmatism-driven choice – they were simply the cheapest, and frankly I didn’t have very high expectations about them.
I got up quite timely on the morning of January 7th and my brother volunteered to drive me up to FRA, leaving home around 8:00. Halfway there, snow began to fall quite heavily, and I began wondering how that would affect my flight plans.
A beautiful sunrise on the Autobahn
We arrived at Terminal 2 shortly before 9:00 and I made my way up toward the security checkpoint for Schengen-bound departures, as I had no bags to check and already checked in online.
After clearing security, where there was a roughly 10-minute wait, I looked up the departure gate and walked over. The flight looked to be on time, although I had to settle into some chairs down the corridor at first, since the gates in this part of T2 do the ticket check before letting you sit in the actual gate lounge, and an AF Hop flight to Paris was still being dispatched when I arrived.
I really like the decor they have at the entrance to the gates here
The gate attendants' desk which you need to pass to get to the actual departure lounge and have some views
A bit later I finally got to have my docs checked and settled into the actual gate area of D24, with some much better views.
Here I could see that flights were definitely being de-iced this morning, something that would be a first for me.
At 10:28, a little behind the originally scheduled time, boarding began, and not seeing a UX plane anywhere near, I knew this would entail another little bus trip. What I didn’t know though was that “little” was quite the understatement, and we ended up driving a full 15 minutes before arriving at a parking position all the way over past Terminal 1, more than halfway to runway 18.
Gate D24's actual departure lounge
The flight that left here before us getting its hot shower outside, alongside some North American heavies
On the bus we crossed paths with the most beautiful plane in LH's fleet: D-ABYT, the retro-liveried Boeing 747-830
Finally arrived at the parking position with today's ride EC-MPS
07/01/2022 – Air Europa flight UX1502
FRA – MAD
Scheduled flight time
- 10:50 – 13:40 (2hr 50min)
- 12:06 – 14:22 (2hr 12min)
- 11:32 – 14:33 (3hr 01min)
- Boeing 737-85P (EC-MPS), 4.5 years at time of flight
- 8F, Window, Economy
Arriving at the faraway stand, it was now already past 10:40.
Being on the first of two buses, it was quite clear to me that we would never make the scheduled departure time of 10:50, especially since we had yet to be deiced. Eventually, the second bus arrived and doors were closed at 11:02.
Seeing that it was a very light load that day, I ended up moving up one row from my original seat at 9F to row 8, since the window alignment was much better there. I didn’t have seatmates in either of those seats.
The captain informed us that there would be some further delays involving the deicing process, but that the initial delay was due to the parking position being assigned last minute, which complicated the deboarding process for the incoming flight.
Very good first impressions of the cabin during boarding - I still believe that Boeing's Sky Interior is the best narrowbody cabin design (although I have yet to fly on an A220-series plane)
Cabin view from the seat and the acceptable legroom - better than on IB
At 11:32, we finally began taxiing, making our way back in toward Terminal 1 where there was a large deicing pad prepared at the tarmac around parking position V160.
Between being held and receiving our colorful shower, we spent over 20 minutes there, before finally taxiing toward the departure runway 18 (back past the original parking position) at 12:00, and taking off at 12:06.
Finally made it to the deicing pad next to a Lufthansa A330-300 (D-AIKP) bound for Dallas-Fort Worth
First time I'm on a flight being deiced!
Passing an LH Cityline Star Alliance liveried A340-300 while taxiing for departure
Lined up on runway 18...
...and blasting off into the low clouds
Being such an empty flight, the takeoff run was very short and in no time we climbed up to our cruising altitude of 39,000 feet. There was no free onboard service, but at least on a (semi-)LCC like Air Europa I had been expecting that and planning accordingly.
Other than that, the flight was quite enjoyable, due to the cabin being so empty and the great views I had from up front – normally I sit behind the wing, so the view of the CFM56-7B26 engines was a great way to spend the time.
Moreover, the plane had overhead screens installed and after first showing a trashy ad movie for Ibiza clubs, they eventually left it set to the inflight map.
Always blue skies above the clouds
Cabin view mid-flight showing the very light load that day
The clouds finally breaking apart above France
I can't get enough of views like this
At 13:51, already into Spain due NW of Zaragoza we began our descent, slowly making our way down for an arrival from the South, landing at MAD’s runway 32R at 14:22, or over half an hour behind schedule.
Already on descent above Castile now
Course is set for Madrid's runway 32R
On finals above the A-2 interstate highway
Landed! The cascading reversers are still in action
A Correos (Spanish Mail)-liveried A330 parked outside Terminal 4's satellite
Arrived in Air Europa land
By the time we arrived at our gate, C48, it was 14:33, but I really did not mind the delay, as I had no more plans for the rest of the day and, being a light load, deboarding was done in no time. On the way out I had my vaccination records checked, with no line this time, and shortly later was on the metro back to my apartment.
Verdict: Fun experience being deiced for the first time, great views on both flights, LH’s inflight service since the pandemic left much to be desired – obviously UX’s wasn’t better but with one of them you expect it and with the other you don’t.
Hope you enjoyed this report, any feedback is as always welcome!
Cheers,
Lukas
