Welcome aboard this BAe 146 – Avro 100, a four-engine regional jet. You won’t see too many of them flying around in North America these days (North Cariboo Air of Canada has three) but they are mainstays in the Brussels Air and Swiss regional fleets. That’s where I typically manage to find myself on one of the type.
In this case it was a quick hop from Geneva up to London‘s City Airport, operated by Swiss on HB-IXX, a 19 year old frame. Seating inside is 2-3 throughout with the movable curtain to separate “business class” from economy. Not really much of anything special going on inside except for the part where it is a 4-engine regional jet. There are not many of those flying around these days.
There was a meal/snack service and the flight attendants handed out the traditional Swiss chocolate bars at the end of the flight. I was so exhausted from the JFK-GVA flight the night before that I slept through all of that and woke up upon arrival in London, ready to start my day.
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Seth,
What is your overall impression of the LCY airport? I am thinking of flying IAD-GVA-LCY for a work trip early next year instead of going into LHR. Did you find it more convenient? Any drawbacks compared to LHR?
CK
Convenience is all relative. It is much smaller and with only the single runway handling both arrivals and departures you’re almost guaranteed to have ~50-70 other passengers to clear immigration and customs with rather than hundreds. It is still 45ish minutes into Central London on the train and at a much cheaper rate than the HEX but there is no express option if that matters to you. And if you’re headed to the Canary Wharf area it is much closer and faster to get there from LCY.
It also has very minimal amenities and facilities for departing passengers. But, again, with the lower passenger numbers the lines are usually much faster so no real need to get to the airport hours early.
I enjoyed my trip through in both directions last week.
Oh the memories — AirCal flew these way back in the days of my misbegotten youth…