Airline: Helvetic Airways
Flight #: LX466
Route: ZRH-LCY
Class: Economy
Seat: 21A
Date: Wednesday 10th January 2024
I’d arrived in Zurich on a Croatia Airlines flight from Split (read about that here) and had just under four hours in the Swiss airport until the last leg of Snoozing to Split. This final flight was with Helvetic Airways, operating on behalf of Swiss, from Zurich to London City Airport.
With a few hours to waste before heading to the gate, I decided to make use of the discounted lounge access I get through my bank account and headed to the Marhaba lounge. This was a really nice lounge, one of the best ‘contract lounges’ that I’ve visited, helped by the fact there were only three other people using it and that it has some views (although limited) of the aircraft.
This time in the lounge gave me opportunity to get started on both the Brussels blog (read that here) and finish off the Berlin to Zurich Sleeper YouTube video (my channel can be found here). I was also able to get a good meal, with the lounge having both hot and cold options, and so enjoyed a chicken curry with rice and beer whilst I waited. If a lounge has a good food and drink selection, the entry fee can easily be covered given the price of food and drinks at airports these days, and I’d recommend the Marhaba lounge if you are in Zurich airport for a while.
As the lounge began to get busier ahead of the evening rush, it was time for me to head to the gate which for my flight was D54. The ‘D’ gates are Zurich’s non-Schengen gates, requiring passing through passport control to access, however once the other side of the border are essentially identical to the ‘B’ gates above them. There’s a few less amenities than in the main open area of the terminal but there’s still a decent amount if you decide to pass through passport control early.
There was also a second passport check conducted at a temporary stand infront of each gate before you reach the actual gate to get your boarding card stamped. This seems to be to enable a quicker boarding process as it replaced the normal glance at the passport during boarding. However, Zurich is the only place I’ve encountered this, so I don’t know whether its an airport policy or down to the airline.
As mentioned above, my flight to London was operated by Helvetic Airways on behalf of Swiss. Whilst Helvetic does operate some flights of its own, a large portion of its operation is on behalf of Swiss, mainly on the shorter European flights with lower passenger demand. The aircraft operating my flight to London City was HB-AZH, a two-year-old Embraer E190-E2 which was delivered new to Helvetic.
With the aircraft having been on the ground in Zurich since 0818 when it had arrived from Paris, I was hopeful that we’d have a quick boarding process and an ontime departure as I was ready to get home. Unfortunately, an almost fully booked flight and people being generally oblivious to general boarding process or the staff trying to ‘gate check’ hand luggage meant this wasn’t to be. Initially we enjoyed #BoardingNotBoarding into a corridor, before then getting on a bus across to the aircraft, although despite this delay, we were also held on the bus outside the aircraft as the crew weren’t ready.
Boarding was eventually completed at 1756, one minute after our scheduled departure time but it took a while beyond this for everyone to find their seats etc. My seat for the flight was 21A, towards the back of the aircraft with just a few rows behind. The Embraer E190-E2s, like their older siblings, are laid out in a 2-2 configuration and whilst I initially had a seatmate, there were a few empty seats and so they moved next to their partner.
Whilst I prefer the Airbus A220 over the Embraer E-Jets, the Embraer E190-E2 is generally a good aircraft. However I did experience a weird problem and the combination of noisy air vents and a quiet PA system made it quite hard to hear the safety announcement. The E190-E2s windows are also a bit smaller than the A220s, and this was compounded by a mediocre window placement for row 21. Rows 15 and 16 seemed to have perfect window placement though if that’s a key priority for you. As with the majority of new aircraft these days, Helvetic have gone for a ‘streamlined’ seat, however these did have USB power sockets so better than some European airlines.
Our taxi from the remote stand eventually started at 1808, 13 minutes after our departure time, and we taxied to runway 28 behind HB-IOM, a Swiss A321-200 that was operating flight LX1582 to Vienna. Take-off was at 1815 and we quickly climbed into the cloud before my view out of the window was hindered by the main cabin lights coming back on. During the flight I was able to see the city of Metz through the clouds but was unable to get a photo owing to the reflections on the window. Its probably a safety thing, but it seems odd that the main cabin lights are turned back on during an evening/night flight, especially when everyone has a reading light.
The flight was fairly uneventful, with my entertainment being ‘The Rest is History’ podcast and the flight being broken up by the onboard service from which I purchased a coffee and a club sandwich for CHF12.90. The approach to London City was pretty stunning as we flew over southeast London before looping around and approaching the airport from the west. This gave me views of major London landmarks such as the Houses of Parliament, London Eye and St. Paul’s Cathedral all illuminated.
We landed at London City at 1832, three minutes early, with the majority of the BA Cityflyer fleet already parked up for the night, whilst an ITA Airways aircraft was just getting ready to taxi out. Parking on stand 21 at 1836, this is one of London City’s stands that are quite a distance from arrivals and require a bus. Unfortunately, this took a while to turn up, with disembarkation starting at 1841, however I didn’t make it onto the first bus and eventually got to the terminal at 1855. Passport control and baggage claim were quick enough (possibly helped by most of my flight having been on the first bus) and I was through to arrivals around 1900. Given London City’s unique selling point is that its quick, this took longer for me to get from aircraft to arrivals than some flights into Heathrow, so not a great effort on this occasion.
All in all this flight with Helvetic Airways on behalf of Swiss was good, although elements certainly could have been better. The aircraft was modern and the seats, especially for streamlined ones, were comfortable and had the added benefit of USB power. Swiss’ onboard catering, whilst requiring purchase, is definitely one of the leading offerings in Europe, however unfortunately the flight was let down by the chaotic and stop start boarding and arrivals processes.
Lounge 0*
Seat/Facilities 4*
Food 4*
Service 3*
Punctuality 5*
Overall Rating 16/25 (read about my rating system here!)
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