British Airways are flying from Dublin to Ibiza through to the end of September 2017 and I decided to fly on the inaugural service. The route is operated by BA CityFlyer which is the London City based fleet.
London City Airport is closed on weekends from 13:00 Saturday to 12:30 on Sunday. Due to this, British Airways are using the otherwise idle aircraft to serve weekend leisure destinations from the UK and Ireland.
BA2349 – Dublin to Ibiza (DUB-IBZ)
19 May 2017
Embraer 190SR – G-LCYW
Seat: Club Europe 2D
Departure: 22:25 Arrival: 02:20+1
The Dublin Airport Executive Lounge closes at 21:00 each night meaning Club Europe passengers must wait elsewhere in the airport. Time passed quickly and it was heartening to see the inbound aircraft arrive.
Inside The British Airways Embraer 190
Priority boarding and boarding for families with infants and small children is called at the same time. I legged it down the aerobridge to be on board as quickly as possible. As a result I surprised the crew and had ample time to take cabin pictures. Ample time of course being a minute or two!
Tonight’s Menu
Boarding soon finished and it turns out there were three passengers in Club Europe and I would estimate half full down the back. The two crew members provided the safety demonstration and after a short taxi we were airborne.
A menu is handed out offering two choices of main course in Club Europe and a complimentary meal in EuroTraveller. Buy On Board catering for economy class is not yet rolled out for the BA CityFlyer fleet, so it is still free.
My crew member asked if I had any allergies to food and later I discovered this was to find out if anyone is allergic to fish. Three meals were loaded for the three passengers in Club Europe – two of the steak and one of the smoked salmon linguini. Obviously if someone was allergic to fish, that person would be guaranteed the steak. Smart!
The Inaugural Dinner
I find BA CityFlyer have a higher standard of Club Europe catering compared to the main services out of London Gatwick and London Heathrow. Steak is always a bold choice on board because it tends to become dry and tough when reheated.
How About A Second Dinner?
Even before my first dinner I considered asking for a second dinner. I had a light breakfast, light lunch and now – nine hours later – I had a pretty decent appetite. As only two people were seated in Club Europe and there were three meals loaded I asked if I could have the extra one.
The crew apologetically explained there was a third person ticketed in the cabin. She had decided to sit with friends in EuroTraveller so he would have to keep it in case she wanted it. No problem at all.
It is always nice when crew think outside the box so I chose the BBQ salmon and potato salad for my second dinner as I had a hankering for some fish. Delicious, delicious, delicious!
Champagne Dreams
Everyone who regularly reads my stuff will know that I am fond of a bit of Champagne when flying. Castelnau is the British Airways Champagne at the moment and there is usually no shortage of it.
At one point both crew were busy serving the EuroTraveller cabin for quite some time. Rather than press the call bell, I decided to take matters into my own hands and popped into the galley, found the chiller box and helped myself.
The rest of the flight passed uneventfully and we landed a little early into Ibiza. On the ground we went down the red steps and into a bus which took us to the terminal.
Overall Thoughts
My first inaugural flight was a great experience and for €230 return very competitively priced. The BA CityFlyer crew are professional, thoughtful and service oriented which I really like. For the geeks out there, the pattern for the cabin crew was LCY-DUB-IBZ, overnight, IBZ-BHX-IBZ, overnight and then deadhead back to LCY.
The fact the catering is a notch above the rest of the European fleet makes flying BA CityFlyer a good choice. Where possible, people should select seat 2C or 2D on the Embraer 190 for the best legroom. Even though there is no entertainment, it is not really needed on a flight of just over 2 hours. I really enjoyed the flight!
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