A word of warning, should you ever find yourself driving to Prague airport and you don't speak Czech: Do not follow signs for 'terminal jih'. I'm not sure what 'jih' means in Czech, but (other than sounding a bit like Klingon) this appears to be the old 'South' terminals, which don't seem to be used by most passenger airlines - I think this may now be used for General Aviation and maybe charter flights. You want 'Leti_te', which is the main passenger terminal.
Found the CSA check-in desks (or should that be Czech-in?), and there were several desks open, but a bit of a line. I quickly looked around for any diy check-in terminals, but only Lufthansa seemed to have any, so I got in the back of the line, which move surprisingly quickly, and before long, I was checked in, armed with a boarding pass for 10A, which is an overwing exit, on one of Czech's new A320s.
Passports are inspected on leaving the Czech Republic, and there was a bit of a line for that - only one EU desk was open. There were a more non-EU desks open, but they all had people waiting at them, and slow moving lines. Maybe it's hard to get out of the Czech Republic, as well as in, if you're not from the EU? [;)]
Once airside, my colleague and I found a bar and enjoyed a couple more glasses of Czech beer before we had to head our seperate ways (he was heading back home to the Netherlands via Dusseldorf). We kept seeing other people from the same forum that we were attending (we're all like one big happy family, in our part of the industry) wandering past, and stopping to chat.
With an 1845 departure time, the boarding time was listed as 1815. However at 1805, I couldn't see an CSA A320 anywhere on the apron. I was wondering if the flight was going to be late, or if we had an aircraft swap back to a cramped 737, when one of Czech's two A320s, OK-GEB 'Strakonice', did pull onto the stand for the London flight.
Finishing up my beer, I headed off for the gate. I thought to leave a little extra time, as Prague airport security is done at the gate - and last time, I was made to turn on my laptop and mobile phone and show them all sorts of things about the technology I was using. As it was, I needn't have bothered with the extra time, everything was done the same as in the UK, with minimum fuss.
So, I sat in the gate room and watched the aircraft being turned around, when there was an announcement that departure would be delayed from 1845 to 1900, because the incoming aircraft was late. A lot of people sighed, and a number went and passed back through the security check to the main part of the airport, as there were no toilet facilities in the gate room.
As it was, we started boarding about 1840, and there was a bit of a boarding scrum, with no boarding by row number, a whole load of pushchairs, and no priority boarding for business class pax (though I'll bet they get held in the CSA lounge until they told boarding has started - PRG is a small enough airport to do that)!
Onto the A320, with another friendly crew, and settle down into the rather nice leather seats. The only downer was that this seat had no recline, being the first over-wing window exit, but tons of leg room.
It also seems that the CSA Airbuses are more generous and consistent with the legroom when compared with the 737 fleet (oceans of room toward the front, and nothing at the back!).
Boarding progressed very quickly, we were pushing back at around 1855, then taxiing out, with the BA 767 heading for Heathrow following us (with some of my business colleagues on), followed by a Eurowings CRJ to Dusseldorf (with my Dutch colleague aboard), taking off to the North East (runway 06) at 1905 local time.
We made a left turn soon after takeoff, to take us into a downwind leg parallel to the runway, where I could see the BA 767 just rolling, before heading out toward Germany.
Our routing would take us just to the North of Frankfurt (I could see the airport off the left-hand side thanks to the clear skies), toward Brussels, and along the Thames Estuary to London, and we had a flight time of 1h35 minutes.
While the A320 is a new plane for the CSA fleet, it wasn't a brand new plane. Made in 2001, it had previously been leased to Air Luxor, and before then was originally owned by Sabena. There were, unfortunately, signs of wear in the toilets, for example, but otherwise, it seemed the seating and much of the interior was all fairly new.
Food was served shortly after takeoff, and a similar deli tray was offered as on the outbound journey, except with different ingredients: a slice of a smoked chicken breast fillet, a slice of German-style ham, a slice of turkey ham, and a slice of Swiss cheese. This was accompanied by an ear of baby corn, a cherry tomato, and presented on a bed of rice pilaf.
Apart from the turkey ham (of which I had a bit and decided to pass), it was another fresh tasting and enjoyable snack, washed down with lashings of Pilsner Urquell!
There was a cream filled, chocolate glazed biscuit (not a pre-packed thing, but a fresh cake in a small plastic dish) to follow, and tea and coffee were served. The chocolate eclairs on the outbound were going to take some living up to though!
Apart from a very occasional bump of turbulence shortly after we entered German airspace, the ride was smooth, and the skies mostly clear over Europe, giving a great view.
The Czech flight crew kept us informed of our progress, and seemed to delight in giving us statistics such as how fast we are going, how much fuel we are using, how heavy the plane was on takeoff, and how cold it is outside ('Fifty-seven degrees of Celsius below zero'). They seemed really proud of their airline, and what they do.
The A320 is fitted with drop-down screens for playing videos (or, I had hoped a displaying sky map), but no audio socket/controls in the seats. They showed some short comedy videos for a while after the meal, and came around with a selection of in-flight (tax free, Czech priced) shopping before it was time to descend into London.
We ended up with a quick orbit over Lambourne before making our approach to 27L, for an 'ON' time of 1946 local. The landing was a little bit 'springy' which seems normal on the A32x series, and we didn't decelerate hard, but just used a little reverse thrust and gently vacated the runway by the high-speed exit near Terminal 3. We then had a bit of a taxi back to T2, parking on stand 213 at 1955 local - so we still managed to arrive about 10 minutes ahead of schedule.
The Uzbek 767-300 flight from Tashkent had just arrived, which meant that immigration was quite busy, but I still ended up walking out of Terminal 2 when I should have just been landing.
I guess that Czech deliberately 'pad' the timetable a little to allow for holding on the way into Heathrow, or for the strong headwinds that can often be encountered going westbound.
Overall, very impressed with my experience on Czech Airlines. I'd recommend them as a good alternative to BA or the LCCs when flying to Prague.
For the smokers out there, from reading CSA's inflight magazine - 'While smoking is forbidden on all flights, complimentary nicotine chewing gum can be requested from your cabin crew'. No kidding.[;)]
Cheers!
Mike
