Introduction

My flight from Bergen arrives in Amsterdam thirty minutes ahead of schedule, and for a change we land on runway 18C, which isn’t quite so far out in the sticks and means that our taxi time is only about five minutes.

The terminal building is teeming with travellers. I figure the lounge will probably not be much better. So instead, I walk around the terminal to stretch my legs a bit.

Most of the shops are currently closed in Schiphol. As I mentioned in one of my recent posts, the airport looks like a huge construction site right now.

Boarding

My flight is boarding from gate B 34, which means our aircraft is parked on a remote stand. The upgrade fairy means well on me, and I’ve been assigned to 1F.

I wait to take the second bus. And when we arrive at our aircraft, I take my time to let everybody else pass ahead of me.

The Cabin & Seat

There are two rows of Business Class. There are two passengers on 1A and 1C. I take up 1F. Once boarding is completed, the lady on 1C moves back to 2A. KLM’s Embraer 190 is much nicer and more convenient than the Embraer 175. Mainly, because there is more storage space up front. And second, because the windows are properly aligned on the larger E 190.

The Crew & Service

The crew are friendly, as usual. The maître de is an enthusiastic young man with a friendly demeanour and excellent manners. On flights operated by Cityhopper, the crew hand out bottles of water before departure. Strangely, this is something they don’t, at least not always, do on the mainline fleet.

We push back on time and make our way to the active runway. The flight time is announced as one hour and five minutes.

The Meal

As soon as we’re airborne, the young man up front springs into action and starts handing out the meal boxes. This time it’s cold Asian style noodles with shrimps, with a side of pecans, two warm bread rolls and three macarons for dessert.

The menu states that, according to the time of day, the crew will pass through the cabin offering additional dishes. Although to be honest, as far as I can recall, I think I’ve only every received one of these juices and frankly, they’re rather horrible.

Arrival in Basel

Eventually, we land in Basel after a flight time of only fifty minutes. I’m back home slightly early. Basel airport is very quiet. There are hardly and people around, and that includes staff. Surprsingly, the weather in Basel is worse than it was in Haugesund. Norway was cold, but the at least it was sunny. Here in Basel it’s cold, wet and rather dreary.

Conclusion

For a while after COVID19 things weren’t looking good for KLM. Standards had started to slip and Amsterdam airport had started to look as though it was about to fall apart.

I have a soft spot for KLM, so I’m glad to see that both the airline and the airport are bouncing back. Schiphol may be a building site right now, but ultimately passengers can only benefit from any improvements they make. And KLM is back to its old form – including the strange catering, which I’m starting to think is part of their appeal.