Flight Report : BA 1459 Edinburgh - London Heathrow
5 June 2024
After a successful arrival experience where I saved a fortune by walking from the airport to the next tram stop to save a fortune on the fare, I thought of doing the same for my outbound flight.
However, after 3 days of intense walking, I was too tired to do that 1km walk from Ingliston Park & Ride back to the airport terminal. So I will travel in style and take public transport straight to the airport. There are 2 bus operators to choose from. 1 runs blue double decker buses under route 100 while the other runs orange single decker buses with the label FAST on it. Prices differ and I picked the cheaper one - the orange company - at 4 pounds for a single journey.
The bus departs from Princes Street, which was perfect after my sightseeing in the historic centre. While there are screens at the bus stop showing when the next bus would arrive, it kept on being delayed but eventually, after over a 10 minute wait, the orange bus arrived and I was on my way. It's now 4:45pm, 2 hours before my departure time.
The bus had nice seats with a luggage area in front. After just over half an hour, we reached the airport terminal.
The departures area is just one corner of the ground floor (arrivals is on the other side) and looked like a Costco warehouse but with lower ceilings. It's hard to see the airline signage for the counters but the ribbons and big boards hanging out by the windows give a good indication where to go. I had checked in the day before to secure my window seat so I didn't need to visit the counter, but a quick glance at the departures screens brought bad news. My flight would be delayed by almost a half hour.
There isn't much to do otherwise in this part of the airport. There is a Marks and Spencers on the other side towards the arrivals hall, which was a fairly well-equipped supermarket with meal deals and sushi boxes that didn't seem to cost more than in the city.
It's only 5:15pm and with my flight scheduled to leave just past 7pm after the delay, I roamed around outside to see what other buses come here.
Other than the Hainan Airlines plane I saw when I landed in Edinburgh a few days ago, I haven't seen another widebody here. I guess Qatar was also able to make the economics work. Why transit in Heathrow when you can go through the beautiful Doha airport instead?
A bit bored after my land-side walk-around, I headed upstairs for security. The lines weren't too bad but it was a bit of a zoo. Several people can unpack at the belt at the same time with trays coming from underneath. These are still the old machines as the laptops still need to come out and there are clear plastic bags on hand to pack your liquids.
After security, we were all forced to snake around the long duty-free store. Going through the large departures board, it's quite clear Edinburgh is a low-cost airline's paradise. BA has minimal presence here with flights to Heathrow and City airports only. easyJet and Ryanair have a much more substantial presence with flights directly into many European cities.
My flight's gate number was not yet available, so I walked around to see what birds are around. It's not a very busy airport but there were lots of people walking around, and the gate areas are not big enough to seat everyone. There are lots of restuarants with available seats though.
I had noticed a lot of European tourists in Edinburgh, and the Royal Mile was very busy even on weekdays. This airport doesn't have that many gates but it was quite crowded inside the terminal as well.
easyJet runs out of a corner of the terminal pier, and 2 flights were boarding by stairs when I arrived. My inbound flight had arrived 20 minutes late at a quarter past 6, while another BA flight to London pushed back next door an hour late as well.
A little hungry as it was approaching the dinner hour, I went into a few convenience shops such as Boots and WH Smith to find more meal deal sandwiches. I even spotted a discount sticker on a vegan salad.
This small Loganair caught my attention. It's my first time spotting this Scottish airline, which flies to regional destinations.
Anyone know why there is a big roll of paper towels in the middle of the terminal? I've never seen anything like it in other airports.
Gate 10 is one of the better gates with a large seating area. But there still isn't enough room to separate the priority lane and the plebians in groups 4-9 especially when a lot of people were already grouped around the area anticipating boarding amidst the delay.
I patiently waited until my group 5 was called. Staff announced that the front section of the plane can board via jet bridge, while those at the back, including me, can board via stairs from the tarmac. This is a fairly smart move to accelerate boarding, and I love walking on the tarmac to see the plane up close.
Today's First World problems with flying are closely related to the amount of hand baggage people carry. Many passengers were scrambling to find space for their larger bags. Coupled with the plane filling up and newly-boarded passengers trying to get into their window or middle seats with someone already in the aisle, the rest of us were held back as everyone tried to sort things out. I don't recall these problems occuring on widebodies, probably because with 2 aisles, the passenger flow can be a lot more efficient.
I only had a backpack and quickly settled. The hand carry mess would continue for a bit more, with one crew member challenging why a bigger case that needed to be moved would even qualify as a hand carry. It didn't help that some passengers were not co-operative when asked if the bag can move elsewhere so they can fit the remaining ones trying to find a safe space. Eventually, a crew from the front end of the cabin came around and I overheard he was trying to put some into the cabinets.
Boarding was complete at 7:14pm, some 34 minutes delayed. We pushed back 12 minutes later. Our original departure time was supposed to be 6:40pm.
Edinburgh's airport is small so it was a quick taxi to the northern end of the runway. Researching the past few days' flight paths, I won't likely get a skyline view on departure, so my right window seat was purely because of the approach into Heathrow.
With a flight time of only 55 minutes, we roared into the sky at 7:35pm. Like the inbound flight, we were served a small bottle of water and 1 choice from their snack basket. Wifi was available for Executive Club passengers while the food for purchase menu and the remaining flight time were viewable for free.
The weather was decent but the light became more elusive as we started our descent into London half an hour later. It was still quite a long way until sunset though so I started to worry if the views will materialize. We entered into a short hold north of the city, as the flight deck had announced during their welcome announcement. I soon saw sprawl and kept my eyes glued to the window.
We entered London from the north and looped east for final approach. While it was hard to spot the Shard and the skyscrapers nearby, I could see the London Eye and Westminster clearly as well as the West End and used that as a benchmark to figure out my location. I guess for Canary Wharf, I need to sit on the left side next time or fly out of the City airport instead!
Looks like King's Cross station down there.
We crossed the Thames right above the City.
I could barely see The Shard as we made the final turn.
While I prefer to use Heathrow as it's my closest major airport, another reason is because of the amazing flight path over the city. It's like an expensive sightseeing helicopter ride included in your ticket.
We landed at 8:39pm and parked at bay 502, which is near the edge of the building and the flight deck mentioned would be a short walk to the exit. It was indeed a quick walk only and I was back landside just shy of 9pm.
Flying in Europe feels low-cost no matter whether it is a full service or discount carrier. The hand baggage issue is quite annoying as it took a lot of time to resolve and made today's delay worse. But if BA starts charging for hand baggage, then it would reduce the already small gap with the likes of easyJet and Ryanair even more.