Flying: Air France A318 Economy Class Paris to Zurich 2015

As I took too much time writing postcards before catching the metro and the RER B to CDG airport, I was rather pressed for time. In addition, I had underestimated the time needed to get from Gare du Nord to the airport. As I had arrived in Paris at night, the train from airport to city was a non-stop service to Gare du Nord. On the return trip however, the train stopped at every station along the way, effectively adding another 10 minutes to the train ride.

Despite that, I arrived at the airport at 11:55AM, an hour before the departure time, which would have been sufficient if departing from Changi, Zurich or even Kuala Lumpur. Yet I again underestimated the travelling time from the RER station to terminal 2F, where my flight was departing from. 

While the signage was sufficient to guide me to terminal 2F, it took a breakneck rush down several escalators and travellators to get to the terminal, only to realise the check-in desks for my flight was all the way down at the other end of the terminal.  

Air France 1614
Paris (CDG) – Zurich (ZRH)
Tuesday, Apr 07 2015
Depart: 12:55PM
Arrive: 2:10PM
Flight time: 1hr15min
Aircraft: Airbus 318
Seat: 23C

After I got the boarding pass, it was already 12:25PM, leaving me with only 10 minutes to get to the gate, since boarding stops 20 minutes before takeoff. 

Looking at the long line queuing for security checks, I knew I could not clear security within 10 minutes and would almost certainly miss the flight. I rushed to the priority lane for first and business class passengers, showed my boarding pass to the airport personnel and explained that my flight will be departing soon. Thankfully they waved me through the queue.

This time round, boarding was from a remote stand and we had to take a bus to get to the plane. As I flashed my boarding pass to the gate agent, I asked her whether I am the last passenger to appear, to which she replied,"There are four more". Well done!

While the Airbus 318 is the smallest in the Airbus 320 family, it still looked huge from the boarding stairs.

I was the last passenger to step into the aircraft at 12:52PM, and the doors closed shortly after I sat down on my seat. 

The captain welcomed us onboard, announced our flight time of approximately 50 minutes. We pushed off at 12:59PM, had a quick taxi and took off at 1:09PM. 

It was a fairly full load, with all but a handful of seats filled. Although it was a short haul flight, it's still interesting that Air France managed to achieve such a high load factor given the stiff competition from high speed trains and budget carriers. 

Then again, no budget airline was serving the Paris-Zurich route direct, or even the Paris-Basel for that matter, and Geneva is really too far from Zurich, so perhaps airlines still have a niche competitive advantage on this route.

The Seat
Perhaps it's just me, but somehow the seat at the rear felt more spacious, with slightly more leg room than the seat I had in the middle on the outbound flight.

Food
Service began shortly after takeoff. Unlike the outbound flight, where service was from both the front and the rear of the cabin, this time round, service was only from the front.

Again it was the familiar tomato mozzarella sandwich, though this time round I had it with an apple juice instead. I was really tempted to try the red wine they offered, though decided against it since it's only early afternoon and I still had work to do when I get back in Switzerland.

Soon after the cups were cleared the captain announced that we would be beginning the descent to Zurich. The final descent was amid heavy turbulence, and I can feel the plane rolling and yawing even as we approached the runway. Thankfully the crew managed to land in peace.

We landed at 1:59PM, had a quick taxi to the terminal, where we parked between a KLM Cityhopper Embraer and an Aeroflot Airbus.

Since I had no check-in luggage and no immigration to clear, I quickly made my way to the airport center, where I grabbed a quick drink and waited for the train back to St Gallen.

While catching up on the news after I landed, it seemed that I just had a close shave with the huge cancellations sparked by a strike of the French air traffic controllers.

BBC, 8 April 2015, French air traffic strike prompts hundreds of cancellations

Wow, if only I had left Paris a day later, I might seriously be stranded at the airport, and probably would be incurring hefty expenses. Thankfully I was spared of that fiasco, and I made a mental note to check out such news before leaving for the airport, not after landing.