On the first day of the new year, I had the pleasure of flying aboard KLM from OSL to AMS. PH-BXK, a Boeing 737-800, would be serving flight KL1140, with a flying time of 1 hour and 30 minutes.
More pictures and video footage can be found in the YouTube link, which includes the safety demonstration, both aborted and succesful take-off, inflight services, crosswind approach and landing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUGQMrfKEKA
I arrived at OSL about 1 hour and 30 minutes before departure time, and was surprised at the amount of passengers this early in the morning on 1 January. The check-in process was very quick, but the personnel were quite grumpy this morning. Not the greatest way for them to start the new year, I presume. Security was surprisingly slow this morning, compared to what is normal for OSL. There seemed to be an obvious lack of personnel this morning.
I proceeded to the D gates, which are for non-schengen flights. These gates are located in the very spacious and modern new pier, which has improved the airport's standards tremendeously. The legacy carriers all operated as normal this morning, which was interesting to see. I was once again surprised at the amount of passengers this morning. I had always imagined these flights to be rather empty due to the new years celebrations that night.
Boarding was smooth and efficient. You could tell most of the passengers were used to flying, or so it seemed. The Captain announced a flight time of 1hour and 30 minutes. Shortly after his announcement the push back started, and the purser welcomed us onboard. The safety demonstration was quick and on-point. The flight attendants do it manually. We pushed back and taxied to the de-icing area. As the airplane was being de-iced, the Captain explained the takeoff procedure, which would include a holding and powering procedure to remove any ice from the engines. We soon taxied runway 19L. Just as the Captain had explained, we stood at the runway with the engines powering for about 30 seconds until the brakes were released. It didn't take long before the pilots pushed the breaks hard, and we came to a full stop. There was a strange atmosphere in the cabin for a brief moment, until the Captain and purser explained what had just happened. Again, short and to the point. We taxied off the runway, where the Captain explained what had happened and that they were going to do some tests. Apparently a warning light had come on once he released the brakes. He explained further that we would do another attempt, and if the same happened again, we would taxi back to the gate. The second takeoff was successful and fairly smooth, as if what had just happened had not occurred. Once through the thick layer of clouds, the sun was rising in the distance. Very cool to have experienced my first ever aborted takeoff, and to catch it on video made it even better.
Overall the flight was very smooth. It was very cloudy below until we reached the coasts of The Netherlands. The aircraft interior was very KLM. The leg-room was fairly good, and the seats comfortable. There is no IFE, but the inflight magazine (Holland Herald) is quite a good read, with lots of interesting articles. The flight attendants served drinks which was an extensive choice of juices, sodas, coffee and tea. Apparently beer and wine was available, but too early for me. The meal was bread with dutch cheese. It was very tasty. Shortly after the meal service was cleaned up, there was time for the sky shop. There was nothing there I wanted to purchase and it seemed like the rest of the passengers weren't interested either, because the flight attendants didn't stop rolling the cart.
The approach to AMS started out quite smoothly, just as the sun had risen over The Netherlands. The purser informed us that two flight were missed connections. I sure was happy I was not going to either Colombo or Sao Paulo that morning. Once we entered the shallow layer of clouds, it started to get windy, and boy oh boy did it get windy the closer we got to the ground. It was pure AMS style for us, with an awesome crosswind approach and landing. Since we landed at Polderbaan, we taxied for what felt like an eternity, even for an aviation enthusiast like myself. However, it was very cool to get a tour of the airport before we reached the gate. Lots of interesting airlines, and even exotic ones, like Surinam Airways, were spread out across the aprons.
Overall I must say KLM is a very nice airline. Everything seems very professional and to the point. The cabin is well kept, and the flight attendants were lovely. A big thank you to the Captain and his co-pilot for explaining the takeoff procedure and also for explaining to us in detail about the aborted takeoff. Overall, information was very good at KLM this morning. I can most definitely recommend KLM. The Dutch have something to be very proud of in their national airline. I was very impressed. AMS is also a wonderful airline for transits, it's logical layout and nice atmosphere is something a lot of airports lack.
Thank you for reading! I hope you liked the report, video footage and pictures.
- ILoveFigures a.k.a. AirlineTraveller
