Trip Reports

Olli Vainio Photography



4 Hour Mini Trip To Frankfurt

Table of contents

Introduction

Note: this report was originally written to airliners.net trip reports forum and has been transferred here to work as a development content for new stuff.

Last Friday I was just browsing SAS' website for reasonable fares from Oulu to anywhere in Europe. Then I came across a 116 euro fare from Oulu to Frankfurt via Stockholm and Oslo for this week's Thursday. 3 EuroBonus qualifying legs for 116 eur? Sold. Not having to go through HEL was a bonus too as OUL-HEL is getting kinda old. I didn't manage to avoid HEL on the return though.

Next I needed to think how to get out of Frankfurt and best option was to take the last Lufthansa flight to Helsinki. I got it for reasonable 150 eur with return to Frankfurt in August - still thinking how to use the return flight but I'm sure I'll figure out something during the summer.

For the last leg to Oulu I looked at booking a Blue1 flight but there weren't any reasonable fares available so I booked a oneway ticket from Norwegian.

Oulu Airport

After arriving at the airport I noticed long queues for Blue1 check-in desk and opted to get my boarding pass from self service kiosk.

One of Finavia's Hello Cafés.

Oulu to Stockholm

Flight Details

Date Flight Route Scheduled Time Actual Time Duration Distance Aircraft Seat Class
19APR2012 KF933 OUL-ARN 13:00-13:25 12:47-13:07 1h 20min 702km Boeing B717 14A Economy

Blue1 B717 waiting at gate 13.

Boarding about to begin.

Oulu airport after departure from runway 30.

Still climbing…

Economy was almost full but there was only one Premium passenger. There's not much to write about the service as it's coffee/tea/water and not even any kind of BOB options.

Touchdown to Arlanda's runway 19R.

Blue B717 at Arlanda's gate 10.

Stockholm-Arlanda Airport

I don't like Arlanda's older parts. They're just too cramped and also feel old, especially the air bridges. F-pier is nice though. Also, free Wi-Fi access would be nice.

Finnair A319 parked across the apron at F-pier.

Stockholm to Oslo

Flight Details

Date Flight Route Scheduled Time Actual Time Duration Distance Aircraft Seat Class
19APR2012 SK867 ARN-OSL 14:30-15:30 14:30-15:25 55min 386km Boeing B737-700 16A Economy

My ride to Oslo parked at gate 4.

LN-TUI…one of the ex-Braathens aircraft.

Almost Swedish…but not quite.

Flight was reasonably full. During the flight there were the usual SAS BOB products available but opted not to buy anything.

Almost at Oslo-Gardermoen.

The seats on this aircraft were just plain horrible. Tight legroom even for me(I'm only 168cm tall) and backrest was not even close to being comfortable for me. Please SAS, install those new Recaro seats ASAP!

Oslo-Gardermoen Airport

Loooooong corridors at Oslo. I really like how they've used glass, wood and steel together. It really works and there's airy feel to the terminal.

SAS B738 being prepared to the next departure.

Oslo has 1 hour free Wi-Fi access and I got online and also got some snacks from Pizza Hut near the departure gate while I wait my ride to Frankfurt.

Oslo to Frankfurt

Flight Details

Date Flight Route Scheduled Time Actual Time Duration Distance Aircraft Seat Class
19APR2012 SK4757 OSL-FRA 16:40-18:45 17:06-19:08 2h 02min 1143km Boeing B737-700 17A Economy

Boarding. LN-RRN today. I really like these glass air bridges…only if Finavia would have installed something like this to OUL.

Cruising at 40,000ft and making good time.

Flight was maybe 80% full. This aircraft has considerably better seats than the other B737-700 I flew. Dare I even say, better than the new Recaro ones?

Approaching Frankfurt's new runway 25R. While we almost made up lost time during the flight, in the decent there were lots of speed limits from ATC and the approach took quite a while.

Landing to 25R offers really cool views of the terminal and apron if you're seated on the left side of the aircraft.

Quick visit to the cockpit. Very nice crew.

Frankfurt Airport

I had 4 hours to kill at Frankfurt and decided to visit Lufthansa's Worldshop to get a model of the B747-8i. I had looked online the Herpa 1:200 model which has a lot more detail than you're average plastic model aircraft. It looked even more spectacular live than in pictures and at 59 eur was reasonably priced. After shopping I decided head back to the departure gate.

>

Busy gate area as usual.

Frankfurt to Helsinki

Flight Details

Date Flight Route Scheduled Time Actual Time Duration Distance Aircraft Seat Class
19APR2012 LH854 FRA-HEL 22:25-01:50 22:37-01:58 2h 21min 1543km Airbus A320 21A Economy

It was so dark that this is only photo from the flight. Lufthansa has good intra-european product with good seat and free drinks and snack. SAS should at least bring back free drinks on their intra-european flights, their BOB-concept is really only suited for LCCs.

Helsinki Airport

At Helsinki I got something to eat from the 24/7 grocery store and then tried to sleep a while.

My "bed". Note to self: Next time take afternoon flight back to Oulu and sleep in proper bed.

Helsinki to Oulu

Flight Details

Date Flight Route Scheduled Time Actual Time Duration Distance Aircraft Seat Class
20APR2012 DY5602 HEL-OUL 07:00-08:05 07:02-08:08 1h 06min 514km Boeing B737-800 11A Economy

LN-NOH waiting at gate 18 before flight to Oulu.

During my check-in at 3am I didn't remember that B738 has air conditioning ducts blocking some windows. Damn. Row 11 was a bad idea. Luckily the problem isn't as bad on the left side.

However, the sole window was about most dirty airliner window I've seen in a while, so no nice wing view photos. Damn.

As with all Norwegian flights to Oulu, this flight was also almost completely full.

I slept almost entire flight…

Back at Oulu after 5 flights and 4300 kilometers of flying.



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About

I'm a traveller and an aviation photographer from Oulu, Finland. This site is a journal of my travels. If you want to contact me, just email me to olli.vainio@kapsi.fi. For my aviation photographs, visit Olli Vainio Photography.