Düsseldorf International

I took public transportation to the airport and arrived there around 07:15. Nobody was queuing at the First Class / Star Gold Counters. Due to an equipment change, the pre-assigned seat was no longer available and I had now a seat further down in row 15. I had more than enough time in Munich, so it was not really necessary to leave the plane quickly in which case a seat closer to the curtain would have been an advantage.

Security had no lines and without further inspection I was on my way to the Senator Lounge. I was surprised to see the Lounge quite empty; usually it is quite busy at this time of the day but not so today. So I had no difficulties to find a seat. I grabbed a croissant and a coffee and checked my mails and did a few last minutes mails to colleagues and answered mails of clients.

Boarding time came closer and although the green lights were not flashing yet, I left the Lounge and walked down to the gate. As expected, boarding had not started yet but the waiting time was not that long. In the meantime I looked at our plane, which was an Airbus A 320 with the registration D-AIQK, named after the city of ‘Rostock’.
This plane is configured with 168 “Neue Europakabine” aka NEK seats. It joined the Lufthansa fleet on June 04, 1991. Powered by the usual CFM International CFM56-5A1 engines with a thrust of 25,000 lbf or 111 kN each. CFM international is a joint venture of French SNECMA and US GE Aviation. The Airbus A 320 is a direct competitor to the Boeing 737-300 and was first rolled out back in February 1987. A plane of this type (Airbus A 320-100) crashed in June 1988 in Mulhouse killing three of the 113 persons on board.

In the meantime the boarding announcement was made and passengers were invited to use the self-boarding facilities.

22 June 2011
DUS – MUC
[Düsseldorf International – Munich Franz-Josef-Strauß]
LH 2001 (Lufthansa); Airbus A 320 (D-AIQK / ‘Rostock’)
Gate A 71
08:45 – 09:45 [effective 08:49 – 10:01]
Economy Class
Seat 15 F

I used the self boarding facilities and was the second person to board the plane. I stored my carry on and my jacket in the overhead compartment and my laptop under the seat in front of me and read in the inflight magazine while the other passengers boarded the plane. The plane was not fully booked. Seat blocking worked and the middle seat in my row remained like many other middle seats empty. The armrests of NEK seats are fixed and the width of the seat is now for everybody the same – this is a true enhancement in the opinion of the people in charge at Lufthansa’s headquarter. I bet passenger have a different view …

The safety demonstration was done while we were at the gate and we pushed back slightly delayed at 08:49.

We took off at 09:02 in Western direction towards Ratingen before we turned towards a more Southern direction.

Since I was sleep deprived I closed my eyes and felt asleep shortly after take-off. I woke up a few times during the short flight but have not many memories about the service and the flight. I finally woke up a few minutes before we landed in Munich, I think by the announcement of the crew for shutting down all electronic devices.

We touched down at 09:57 and taxied a short way to our gate, which was G 36 as far as I remember.

Disembarking was quick, though I was blocked by a lady in the row in front of me, who had put her luggage down in the aisle so that nobody could pass. But eventually she got up and walked towards the exit.

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