Route: FRA-LCY
Airline / Flight number: BA8733 (BA CityFlyer)
Aircraft: Embraer 190 , G-LCYP
Date: July 13, 2016
Miles: 619 km
Flight time: 60 minutes
Scheduled departure: 11:40
Actual departure: 12:51, RWY 18
Scheduled arrival: 12:15
Actual arrival: 12:51, RWY 27
Class: Economy
Seat: 12B (Exit-row)

After an interesting colloquium at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz it was time to move on and go back to the UK for the concluding part of the trip. FRA is located between Frankfurt and Mainz so the trip from the Mainz train station does not take more than twenty minutes:



The long-distance station at FRA is probably my favourite part of this crazy airport



In recent years I only transited through terminal 1 in FRA but I remembered that you can take the SkyLine train. However it turned out that there are constructions on the line and it was not operating so I had to take a shuttle bus instead. The signage was not so clear, I must say, but finally I made my way to the bus:





I was surprised how far was terminal 2 as the ride took about 10 minutes. We arrived then at the non-impressive terminal building. Check in was very crowded but fortunately not the BA priority lane so it did not take more than 5 minutes to tag and send my luggage:



There are endless discussion concerning the two available lounges for BA departures: the CX and JL ones and after reading the dedicated thread it sounded as if the JL option is better, mostly because it is much closer to the departure gates BA uses. Anyway, all seem to agree that both lounges are rather dull and I cannot contradict that The lounge was very crowded when I got in at around 9:45 but was almost empty when I left when boarded started at nearly 10:50. One good thing about the lounge is the fact that they announce boarding; always a good thing ^ Here are some photos I took in the lounge:













I did not mention that security check are done in terminal 2 at the entrance to the departure gates area; there was only one lane and it moved extremely slow:



And not only that, we had to wait on the bus to the remote stand for nearly 20 minutes as there was heavy rain and ground transport was aborted:





On the way to the aircraft I noticed a neat TUI 737-800 with the split scimitar winglets:



The second revelation of the day was the British Airways 3 Volkswagen Golf



It was very crowded downstairs:



And on the aircraft:



But ample legroom at the exit-row:



It took us some time before we were cleared to taxi to the runway, and we had to taxi all across the field the lone RWY 18 at the other side of the park. Then it was closed for nearly half an hour; I do not know why but several fire trucks were on-site and I suspect it had something to do with the heavy rain that was pouring.

Once the runway was operating again we had to give way to many other aircrafts to take off but luckily I saw my first ever A350 in the flesh and I do hope to find myself in one of these ASAP….



This was my first ever BA CityFlyer flight, which explains - I assume - the absence of my beloved British Airways highlife magazine and the existence of this:



Yeh, they do real business on this subsidiary….. This might explain the somewhat ascetic snack:



After exactly 60 minutes we landed in LCY, a very cute airport indeed. I especially like small airport with small commercial jets….



Then the luggage hall:



And then the DLR, Tube, Great Northern and here I am at the entrance to a friend’s flat in Cambridge for two days of recuperation before I head back to the Middle East: