An almost routine, uneventful flight from Gothenburg to Copenhagen on SAS en SAS plus, except that for once I did it in a 320 Neo and, above all, that disembarkation was chaotic to say the least.
Here I am, in the penultimate straight to Paris, with a flight to Copenhagen from Gothenburg that I’ve made so many times recently that I almost feel like I’m taking a shuttle.
Not much to expect from this flight, given its duration and the fact that since it is considered a “domestic flight” we’re down to minimum service. More interestingly, I’ll be doing it for the first time in an A320 Neo instead of the usual ATR 72, which I’m happy about. And at this stage I didn’t think I had much to report, but our arrival in Copenhagen deserves some attention.
Here’s a reminder of the air routing for this trip.
And you’ll find a summary of this vacation in the United States at the bottom of the page.
Check-in and ground course
So it’s early afternoon when I arrive at Gothenburg Landvetter airport, an architectural masterpiece.
I head for the check-in desks, which are deserted.
Then the security checks with a fast track that I’ve only ever experienced empty in Gothenburg.
For the first time I’ll see the agents get a little overzealous, and the two people in front of me will have their bags inspected manually.
No problem as far as I’m concerned, and I find myself in the duty free area, which I cross to reach the lounge.
This time I won’t be doing a detailed review of the lounge, which I’ve already presented on numerous occasions here and as recently as a few days ago.
As small and pretty as ever, and the food and beverage offer as frugal and inadequate as ever…
I’ll wait and even let the boarding time pass before reaching the gate, knowing from experience that the Gothenburg-Copenhagen never leaves on time and that in any case, given the size of the airport, it only takes a couple of minutes to get there.
Boarding
I make my way to the boarding lounge at the end of the terminal.
Unsurprisingly, boarding hasn’t yet begun, the agents have just arrived and the plane isn’t even here.
Flighradar confirms that we’ll be leaving late….and arriving early.
Exactly what I’d planned. Note that the flight is scheduled for 1 hour “block”, but the actual duration is only 35 minutes on the ATR72 or 25 minutes on the A320, which leaves a good cushion in case of delays.
We’re finally ready to board, this time via a jetway as we’ll be flying on an A320 Neo and not the usual ATR 72 I’m used to at other times of the day.
As is increasingly common in Scandinavia, half the aircraft will board from the rear, with an external staircase to save time.
The cabin
All classics: grey fabric seats to great effect, 3-3 configuration.
No business class in medium-haul on SAS and in SAS Plus (premium eco) the central seat is not blocked.
As usual on SAS medium-haul aircraft, I found the back of the seat to be rather uncomfortable, almost giving the impression of sitting on the seat’s metal frame. You just have to find the right position.
A very slim seat in “ironing board” mode, like Lufthansa’s NEK.
There’s plenty of room at knee level.
The cabin will be far from full, and the central seat will finally be free on 3/4 of the SAS Plus cabin.
We’re quickly ready to go.
The flight and the service
We take off quickly, with time to admire the typical scenery of clouds, lakes and forests.
Given the duration of the flight, service will begin quickly. On intra-Scandinavian flights, it is reduced to its simplest form. I’ll have a coffee while I watch a series.
The descent begins very quickly…25 minutes is a very short flight.
Arrival and disembarkation
After a few minutes over the Baltic, we land safely…
We then park at the gate and that should be the end of the story.
But the jetway is taking a long time to be installed, so we wait and wait. The pilot tells us after 20 minutes that we’ll be disembarking by bus due to an “administrative problem“.
While disembarking by bus because of a problem is not unusual, I’m a little surprised by the reason.
So we board the bus and are taken to the far end of the terminal, to the E…. gates, which are not Schegen gates. So we find ourselves mixed in with the passengers of a jumbo jet that has just arrived, and have to pass through immigration control…
We’ll never know why.
And, then, anyone who knows Copenhagen airport knows that when you arrive from gates E and leave from gates A and B, you have to walk a long way and very quickly if the connection is short.
As far as I’m concerned, I had a fairly comfortable connection time, which has suddenly shrunk like a stone. No time for the lounge and I’m at the gate right on time.
Bottom line
In the end, it’s a very ordinary flight, whose duration is not conducive to a quality experience. On the other hand, the disembarkation was rather bizarre, and in the end it took an hour to get to my next boarding gate, without any explanation.
I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that some missed their flight.
Articles about this trip to the United States
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