Airline: EasyJet
Flight #: U22538
Route: GVA-LTN
Class: Economy
Seat: 27F
Date: Wednesday 18th October 2023
Having had a day exploring Geneva and a small part of the Swiss railway network (read about that here and here), my day in Switzerland was drawing to a close. Starting the journey home with another trip on a loco-hauled InterRegio service from Brig, I travelled the one stop to the Geneva Airport terminus and headed back upstairs to reach the Airport itself.
Despite the ban on liquids over 100ml in hand luggage having been in place for over 17 years, the man ahead of me in the queue still decided on arguing his case to take through some cologne he had forgotten to put in his checked luggage. Other than this, passing through security was quick and simple, however the entrance was surprisingly small and a definite bottle neck for an otherwise large and efficient security area.
With security having taken a lot less time than I’d expected, I had a while until I had to head to the gate and so decided to head to one of the four lounges at the airport that I was able to access with Lounge Key. Given the time of my flight, the ‘Horizon by Swissport’ lounge was the best option and so I made my way through the maze that was the first floor to find the lounge.
If I’m honest, as airport lounges go, the Horizon by Swissport lounge can best be described as ‘a bit naff’. Whilst I appreciate that I am fortunate to be in a position that I can choose to head to a lounge, criticism is not ungratefulness and this lounge seemed to fall below even the basic expectations of an airport lounge. The lounge managed to feel cramped but also open to the airport at the same time, whilst the food and drink options were pretty limited and a bit sorry. Given I’d paid a similar amount to enter the SAS lounge on my trip back from Aarhus (read that here), the difference between them was staggering.
Deciding to cut my losses after a while and head for the gates, partially to allow time for passport control if needed, inevitably there wasn’t much of a delay and I had soon ‘exited’ the Schengen zone into Geneva Airport’s ‘C gates’. These gates are a fairly modern part of the airport and serve a wide range of airlines including Emirates, the US majors and low cost airlines serving the UK.
My flight, easyJet’s U22538 to Luton, was departing from gate C61 at the far end of the concourse and a long walk away from the passport control area. The concourse had plenty of seating at each gate with built in USB A, C and European sockets, and with not many more flights departing I was able to find a quieter area a couple of gates away to wait for boarding.
The aircraft for my flight was G-EZWU, a nine-year old Airbus A320ceo than arrived from Birmingham around 45 minutes before we were scheduled to depart. As expected with low-cost airlines, the turnaround was quick and boarding started at 2100, half an hour before we were due to depart and just 16 minutes after the aircraft had landed.
Boarding was completed at 2113 with the flight about three-quarters full and although we were looking likely for an early departure, an ATC slot restriction meant we weren’t able to push back until 2137. As we entered Geneva’s runway 23, a DHL UK Boeing 757 took off ahead of us, heading for DHL’s hub at Leipzig as one of the multitude of inbound flights to the German city that form the first wave of the airline’s nightly operation.
Taking off at 2150, we soon turned to the right to head north-west across France. Initially heading towards Paris, we passed the French capital to our left catching glimpses of the city of lights through the clouds before then crossing the coast not far from Dieppe. Continuing our straight line, we then crossed the English coast over Eastbourne before making a turn over south-west London to avoid Heathrow’s approach and begin our arrival into Luton.
The flight itself was pretty uneventful and after a long day I spent it with my headphones on, watching Netflix. My limited interactions with the crew gave me a positive impression and overall the flight with easyJet was pretty comfortable. With the start of storm Babet hitting the UK, the approach and landing were quite bumpy and despite the slot delay at Geneva, we landed at 2208, two minutes early.
A short taxi later, we were pulling on stand at 2213 and the aircraft emptied quickly, as I joined the passport control queue just five minutes later. Getting through passport control, baggage claim and customs took me a few minutes longer and I was back ‘landside’ in arrivals at 2226 with just a bus ride to the car ahead of me.
As with my flight from Luton to Geneva, this flight with easyJet was on time, comfortable and overall pleasant. My previous impression that easyJet were a slightly more upmarket low-cost carrier certainly seemed to be correct and the crews on both flights were excellent. I’ll definitely be looking at flying with easyJet again in future, especially given my recent experience with Ryanair.
Lounge 0*
Seat/Facilities 3*
Food 3*
Service 5*
Punctuality 5*
Overall Rating 16/25 (read about my rating system here!)
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