Airline: easyJet
Flight #: U22435
Route: LTN-CDG
Class: Economy
Seat: 9A
Date: Wednesday 11th February 2026
Having been back from my Meander to Moldova for about a month, I was getting Wanderlust and so on a random Wednesday in February I headed to London Luton Airport ready to catch a short flight across the English Channel to Paris. Unusually I’d have some company for this extreme day trip, as my dad was joining me for the day, with a plan of seeing both some of the city and ticking off an item from my AvGeek bucket list. We had planned on doing this trip via Eurostar, allowing us both to avoid a late night drive back from Luton, however the cost was extortionate by the time we went to book and so instead, we had a flight to catch, and easyJet were doing the honours from their home airport as we headed to Paris Charles de Gaulle.
With February not exactly being peak travel season, Luton was pretty quiet in comparison to some of my previous visits and we breezed through security in about five minutes, with most of that time zigzagging our way through the queuing system. Luton had the new modern scanners installed in all lanes, so there’s no longer any requirement to remove liquids and electronics from your bags, making the whole process a lot quicker. Through into departures around 90 minutes before departure, we had time to visit ‘Big Smoke’, one of the restaurants in departures, for a filling breakfast and some much-needed coffee.
Around 40 minutes later, and 50 minutes before departure, our gate was announced, with gate 20 being just a couple of minutes’ walk from the main departure lounge. As is always the case with Low Cost Carriers, #BoardingNotBoarding started at 0619 into an enclosed but outdoor corridor, with actual boarding starting 10 minutes later. Our aircraft for the short flight to Paris was G-EZBZ, an 18.5 year old Airbus A319 that was delivered new to easyJet back in July 2007. As with most narrowbody aircraft, its laid out in a 3-3 configuration, with some extra leg room seats at the front and at the overwing exits.
We were in seats 9A & B, just ahead of the overwing exits and, whilst initially there was someone else in 9C, they moved forward to sit with their travel companions after boarding was complete, giving us a little bit more space for the flight. Row 9 has a well-placed window, so is one for me to remember in future, and easyJet have all the usual amenities of reading lights, coat hooks and individual air vents, although easyJet does not have power sockets installed on its aircraft. Boarding was complete at 0642, with the front door closed just a few minutes later and it looks like we were going to get an early departure.
Unfortunately, the aviation gods decided that early departure wasn’t going to happen as we sat on stand for another ten minutes or so, pushing back at 0657 (three minutes early) and began our taxi at 0701. With Luton’s morning rush of departures in full swing, we were 5th in the queue for take-off behind a Wizz Air, a pair of easyJets and a private Citation XLS. Notably the Wizz Air at the front of the queue was operating flight W95481 to Chișinău, the capital of Moldova and the final destination of my Meander to Moldova the previous month. After waiting for the four departures ahead of us, we also had to wait for 9H-WMC to land having operated flight W43003 from Bucharest, another city I stopped at on my way to Chișinău. Finally, just under 20 minutes after we began our taxi, we took off from Luton’s runway 25 at 0720 and began making our way south towards Paris.
With the onboard service starting shortly after departure, I did have a browse through the menu and saw there was a reasonable selection of food and drink available, however having recently had breakfast at the airport, we decided not to get anything. After initially heading south-west over Buckinghamshire, we made a turn around High Wycombe to take us onto a south easterly heading, passing over Maidenhead, Woking and Crawley before crossing the English coast near Eastbourne just over 15 minutes after departure. Less than 10 minutes later we had crossed the channel at our cruise height of 25,000 feet and were crossing the French coast over Dieppe, before continuing south-east over Normandy before the seat belts signs came on at 0752, just over half an hour after leaving Luton.
It was at this point, over the town of Gisors, we turned to the east and passed Paris and Charles De Gaulle airport to our right, before making a U-turn over rural Ile de France to line us up for a westerly approach to France’s largest airport. As we had descended over Ile de France we had descended into the bank of cloud covering the region, although we made our way below this as we began the final approach. The undercarriage was lowered as we passed over a small quarry near Cuisy, and we touched down on Charles De Gaulle’s runway 27R at 0912 local time (18 minutes early), after a flight time of just 52 minutes.
As we taxied across half of the airport from the northern most runway to Terminal 2D in the southern half of the airport, there were plenty of aircraft and airlines to see, with Vietnam Airlines; Etihad; Air China and Aer Lingus amongst others. Behind us, another easyJet landed with G-EZTZ having operated U23245 from Edinburgh, with Air Transat’s C-GUBO arriving behind that on flight TS110 from Montreal. After a 10-minute taxi we pulled onto stand B06 next to Air Serbia’s YU-APA, with the doors opening a couple of minutes later. After only spending 52 minutes in the air, long waits on the ground seem to feel even longer, with the passport queue taking us around 15 minutes to get through with the new EES in operation, and it was then another 10 or so minute hike through terminal 2 to reach the RER station.
All in all this was a short but sweet flight with easyJet, with a comfortable seat, an early arrival and a friendly crew. Luton was a breeze to get through and didn’t seem too hectic, however unfortunately the passport queue and long walk at Charles De Gaulle did put a bit of a dampener on things, with us not getting on a train until almost an hour after we had landed at the airport. Would I fly to Paris over taking the train again? If the price was right, probably!
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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