A seasonal route from South Africa! While German flag carrier Lufthansa operates to Johannesburg on a year-round basis, the city only sees service to and from Munich, Lufthansa’s second-largest hub, on a seasonal basis. Thus, I decided to get this one in before the northern winter is over and a lot of cool seasonal flights are put on hold until much later in the year.
Server: Solo
Airline: Lufthansa
Aircraft: Airbus A350-900
Origin: O.R. Tambo International Airport, Kempton Park, South Africa (JNB)
Destination: Munich Airport, Erding, Germany (MUC)
Flight Number: LH579
Route: FAOR-EDDM
Seat: 28K (Economy)
Time En Route: 10 Hours 27 Minutes
Boarding our flight for the roughly 10:30 flight to Munich, the capital city of the German state of Bavaria and home to Lufthansa’s A380 fleet and most of their A350 operations. Our aircraft is D-AIXI, named “Dortmund”.
Beginning to taxi
Departure from O.R. Tambo. The Denver-tier field elevation and high temperatures, coupled with the relative geographic isolation of South Africa from many major cities where large international carriers are based (Ranging from 10 hours from Europe to almost 16 to the United States) means that JNB requires really long runways and really long takeoff rolls.
Climbing to our cruising altitude of 34,000 feet northwest of Johannesburg. Any Saffers able to tell me what this ridgeline is called?
Heading north over Angola
Between Sardinia and Corsica
After a lovely flight insofar as economy class seats are concerned, we’ve started our descent into Munich over the Swiss Alps
Landing at Munich, or Flughafen Munchen “Franz Josef Strauß”
Parked at Terminal 2. Overall, I’d say that Lufthansa’s A350 economy product is one of the best out there. You get exactly what you pay for, in the best possible sense of the word. No sense of cost or corner-cutting here, while at the same time, it doesn’t pretend to be something it isn’t. Overall 8.5/10.