3rd TR: STR-TXL And TXL-STR On AB In Y

— OUTBOUND LEG —

Hello and welcome to my third trip report!

Click here to read the report on Airliners.net.

***BACKGROUND-INFO:***
As already mentioned in my first TR I fly home to Berlin regulary from MHG or STR. So this time it was STR. Btw the last time before I move back to Berlin in October this year (2011), I booked all flights for this year with C9 (Cirrus Airlines) from MHG.

***PRE-FLIGHT:***
I started my drive to STR around 01:00 PM and parked at the P2 parking-garage. From there it is a 5 minute walk to the terminals:

STR terminals:

As I had used online-check-in before I just went to the baggage drop-off as I had to use my larger bag for this 10-day-trip:

Passing through security, I love the analogue FIDS:

Digital FIDS after security:

I walked through the Duty Free shop to buy some christmas presents and then proceeded to my gate to find out the arriving flight was late:

NetJets’ Falcon 7X CS-DSA waiting as number 2 in the queue:

Contact Air Fokker 100 on short final with a Germanwings A319 waiting as number 1 in the queue:

Arriving AB Q400 D-ABQE:

My aircraft arriving, AB 738 D-ABBY:

CS-DSA lining-up:

D-ABBY taxiing to the gate:





Despite the arriving flight coming in late, boarding was on-time, beginning around 14:45/02:45PM:

***FLIGHT 1:***
Date: 23 December 2010
Airline: Air Berlin / AB
Flight: AB 6536
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800
Aircraft Reg: D-ABBY
Departure Airport: STR / Stuttgart Airport
Arrival Airport: TXL / Berlin – Tegel
Scheduled Departure Time: 15:00 (on time)
Scheduled Arrival Time: 16:15 (on time)
Class: Economy
Seat: 15F (window/exit-row) (checked-in 16F)

Copyright gcmap.com.

As I was the first to board the plane I had time to go the back of the aircraft to take this photo:

Foggy STR:

A dead-heading captain:

Push-back:

As the exit-rows stayed empty I moved one row up:

LH 737 to HAM:

Lots of legroom in the exit-row:

Take-off:

While climbing through the fog and clouds dark spots appeared at the horizon and at first I didn’t realize these were the mountain tops south of STR coming through the very low hanging clouds:



In-Flight:


The sky started to get orange before 04:00 PM:

Drink and snack service, and because I couldn’t decide between the salty and sweet snack the friendly FA gave me both snacks:

Approach to TXL:

Visibility was under 200m/yds, I wasn’t able to see the parallel runway, I wondered why it is visible in this picture:

Arriving at Terminal C, Air Berlins’ low-cost-terminal, Terminal A was not visible in the distance, just the appron lights could be seen:

***POST-FLIGHT:***
Deplaning via stairs, followed by a 30 second bus-ride to the terminal:

Inside Terminal C, Picking up my bag:

Terminal C as seen from the parking lot:

— INBOUND LEG —

***BERLIN***
This time I am posting no photos from my hometown, if you want to see some touristic photos have a look at my first TR.

This last-week-of-december visit was just for Christmas and partying with friends:

***PRE-FLIGHT:***
New Year’s Day came too fast and I had to fly back, on my way to the airport through the “airport tunnel”:

I had checked-in the day before, online, but again had to drop-off my bag. To my disappointment this took me about 30 minutes as the baggage-conveyor-belt had a malfunction and it took them some time to fix it:

So after 30 minutes I could drop-off my bag:

Bye, bye bag:

Security, fast and efficient:

Boarding had already begun, so I got into the long queue:

***FLIGHT 2:***
Date: 02 January 2011
Airline: Air Berlin / AB
Flight: AB 6541
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800
Aircraft Reg: D-ABBY
Departure Airport: STR / Stuttgart Airport
Arrival Airport: TXL / Berlin – Tegel
Scheduled Departure Time: 21:00 (on time)
Scheduled Arrival Time: 22:00 (on time)
Class: Economy
Seat: 15A (window/exit-row) (checked-in 16A)

Copyright gcmap.com.

The aircraft was packed, every seat was taken, except for the 12 seats in both exit-rows, so I moved one row up again, from 16A to 15A.

Push-back:

Line-up and take-off:


Relaxing with lots of legroom:

Cabin service started shortly after take-off while we were still in climb as our flight time today would be unter 60 minutes:

Approach and landing:


Arriving at the gate, but the airbridge was frozen and malfunctioning, so a Bus took us to the terminal:

***POST-FLIGHT:***
Willkommen in Stuttgart / Welcome to Stuttgart:

Waiting for my bag, took endless 15 minutes, what is rather long for STR:

On my long way back to P2 parking:

***FINAL WORDS:***
Two short domestic hops with AB, nothing to complain about regarding service or the aircraft itself (was the same on both flights). Airport STR really should think about changing their operator of the parking-garages as the fees are unbelievably high; one of the reasons why I try to fly from MHG, parking is free there.gcmap.com

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