BA309 19JAN08 Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Paris France (CDG) to London-Heathrow, London England (LHR) 321 G-EUXD 12:25p 12:25p
Flying time: 0:45
As I boarded the crew checked the boarding passes and was saying that we would perhaps sit for a bit as Air Traffic Control in Heathrow was getting things sorted out. The delay could be up to three hours she said; judging from how long that other plane sat there, I could well see that happening. Oh, well, I’ll just read and sleep ;-).
This aircraft is about the size of a Boeing 757-200; it has a single aisle and in Club Europe has a 3-3 configuration but usually no one sits in the middle seat. In Euro Traveler, it is 3-3 configuration. Unlike the 757, it is an open cabin, so there are no solid bulkheads.
I made my way back to my seat and got settled in. The lead flight attendant came on the PA and gave her welcome on board.
At 12:56p the Captain came on, introduced himself and said our slot time is not good, that is the bad news; we won’t move from the stand for about two hours. He says he’s been flying for about 25 years now around Europe so he has a strategy why he has everyone board knowing that we have a two hour wait. If someone else is careless and misses their slot, then we can take advantage of it and get going. He continued, saying that our actual wheels up time is 2:10p UK time (3:10p France time).
The reason for the delay is for the incident that occurred a few days ago (he was very good about how he mentioned this); the aircraft is still sitting at the end of the runway so this is inhibiting the landing and takeoff; he advised that he will keep us informed so not to worry. He sounded really upbeat so that was good as he introduced his cabin crew. Weather is wet and rainy at Heathrow temp is 15C. There may be bumps along the way so keep the seatbelts fastened.
There was lots of chatter in the cabin after the announcement; just people being worried about their connections really.
He came on and said that our slot time has changed to 2:00p UK time, everyone laughed, but we shaved 10 minutes off; he then said that the cabin crew will do a drink service before we depart and drinks are on him. He also said the he would be in the cabin for any questions and his first office at some point as well.
Passengers were asking questions about their connecting flights. This does prove my theory about customers connecting throughout Europe to get to where they are trying to go. There were a few customers who were going to the U.S. from here as opposed to flying to the U.S. nonstop from here.
The Cabin Service Director had to explain the reason for the delay to a customer who did not understand; she did a good job. She then made an announcement that they have given all the information they have and just allow them to give us a meal service and they will update them on information as soon as they know more. It is hard to keep people from worrying about missing their flights; Heathrow must be a nightmare!
I totally understand people’s concerns, luckily London is my final destination for today. I’ve read that with only one runway active the airport is down to about 50% of arrival/departure capacity per hour on the lone remaining parallel runway.
Some people in the back of the plane were complaining of feeling warm; the crew adjusted air condition to help with that situation.
The Captain was now in the cabin answering questions, he looked a little older than his voice, if that makes sense.
The meal service came in the form of drinks of choice and a cheese Ploughmans Wrap; chatter had pretty much died down, but you could still hear a little talk and concerns about their travel plans. One thing that customers sometimes don’t realize that if we are delayed so are others using the airport, so some of them will make their connections; also if there are multiple flights to a destination, the airline will do their best to accommodate you on those flights. One issue here too is that customers are connecting to other airlines other than British Airways; I heard a few mention Virgin Atlantic to the U.S.
At 1:27p local time, the Captain came on the PA and gave an update, 1:45p UK time is our new slot time; things are getting better he says and keeping with his pledge to keep us informed.
At 1:33p, an announcement was made that landing cards would be distributed to those who needed them; if you are not an EU citizen and London is your final destination then you need one, so I collected one. I joined the IRIS program (http://www.iris.ov.uk), but it has not worked the last four times I’ve entered the U.K. this system allows you to use an express area as you’ve already registered with the system. I hope it is working this time around as something tells me that the lines will belong today.
Another British Airways A321-231 arrived at 1:36p; G-EUXH, this is the 2:40p departure which I am sure will be delayed as well.
At 1:50p the Captain came on the PA and announced that our new departure time was seat at 1:30p UK time, which is within 40 minutes! Flight time is 45 minutes he added. He also said that he continues to work on getting a better slot time. All this time, the flight attendants had been cleaning up the cabin and I continued reading all the papers I collected in the terminal area.
There was an article in the guardian that there is a site at http://pprune.org that talks about pilot gossip etc. that you can check out, it was noted however that the site had crashed due to a lot of traffic.
At 2p, the seat belt sign came on and the Captain said ATC was fed u of us annoying them so we go the go ahead to get out of here… a whole 30 minutes early it seems.
We pushed back at 2:03p and the safety demo started in English only. We started our taxi at 2:07p and was off the ground at 2:23p as there was a alight wait at the runway. On take off, I could see an Air France A340-300 taking off from another runway; it made for a spectacular sight.
After takeoff, the flight attendant announced that they would only do a beverage service since they had already served the meal. As soon as the seatbelt signs were off, I made a dash for the toilet, but two others had already beat me to it; the wait was not long though and there were two others behind me.
The overhead monitors kept track of our progress as we go back in time one hour flying at 24,000’. The drink service started just before we got to the French coast.
At 2:41p the Captain came on and said we would start our descent soon and expected to land in about 25-30 minutes and we have to cross the southern runway to get to terminal 4, so there may be delays in that.
We had a slight delay in landing, but not too much.
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