The departure is organized from the new terminal of Vnukovo airport. The new terminal is already on stream though it’s still under construction. Formerly the old terminal of the airport served practically only domestic flights. The construction of the new terminal attracted to the airport serious carriers such as Lufthansa - the leader of German aviation. The carrier flies from Vnukovo to Berlin, Dusseldorf and Hamburg.
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The new terminal is rather spacious in comparison to the old one:
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Lufthansa check-in counters:
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After checking-in (which is also available on the company web-site in 23 hours before the departure) there is the customs and pre-flight examination – everything’s qick and without any queues. To my surprise they don’t withdraw liquids, I passed through with a bottle of water. The clear zone is small with a few caffes in it. Sorry, but the service level in the caffes is rather lousy… It’s obvious, that the new terminal is still under construction – the glasses and metal structures are spotted with paint. And the door to the smoking area, precisely its left flap, is already broken.
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We’re entering the plane through the boarding bridge, there’s a small escalator leading to it from the exit. By the way there are not many passengers at our flight in comparison to the Lufthansa flight to Dusseldorf. The boarding to that plane is not far from our exit and a huge queue can be seen…
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The Airbus-319 seems to be brand-new – everything’s clean, the cabin inside is designed in Lufthansa house style, no any abrasions or carelessness. There are two stewards in the economy class. Both are so shiny that make us embarrassed for the first moment. The passengers with children were taken care of and received rugs. The steward who was serving our part of the cabin is at the distance shot. It’s curious that there was the surname of the worker printed on the badges, not the name. in our case they were H. (Herr – Mister) Abu Hamid and F. (Frau or Freulein) Kruger. They speak German and English.
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There’s enough space for feet thanks to thin seats.
The take-off was gentle, though 50 minutes late – we waited long for our turn to take-off. The captain on the air apologized in German and in English, asked the passengers to be patient and promised to do his best to reach Berlin with the least delay…
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The light supper. The chicken or something vegetarian was served for the main dish.The choice was not big but the food was good. Among the drinks there was red or white wine except for the ordinary tea, coffe, water or juices. Besides the hot supper the stewards offered something to drink for several times. I used to drink red wine which was never over, to my surprise… After that the stewards offered the passengers to draw the Lufthansa bonus card. Before the landing they asked us to fill in the flight references. On the whole the stewards worked on the high professional level.
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To entertain ourselves we’ve got the standard economy-class set: I took the paper beforehand at the entrance, there was the press in German and in English. The magazine was also in Geman-English. First all the articles were in German and then just the same in English.
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The standard panel – light, climatecontrole, steward call button:
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The lavatory is fresh, there’s everything necessary in it:
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The lable bird of Lufthansa. After the stewards’ strikes it’s also famous as “angry bird”:
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The flight estimated time is 2 hours 40 minutes. It took us obviously less time. As it was promised by the captain the delay appeared to be minimal. The landing was soft. I managed to take the picture of the plane itself only after the flight, and not the best picture…
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The bus took the passengers to the A terminal of the Tegel airport named after Otto Lilienthal. There are three glass customs stands just in three meters from the entrance, after the huge sign: the Federal Republic of Germany. The customs officer checked the visa, asked me about the aim of my visit and the length of stay in the European Union and asked me to show the return ticket. After that she put the stamp and wished me the pleasant trip. The customs area is followed by the baggage reclaim and the exit to the taxi parking. In order to travel to the city by shuttle or ordinary bus you have to enter a small cheerless corner with the elevator and press the button with the bus on it. I thought that the elevator would take us to the bus-stop, but it took us only one floor up, right here:
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It’s possible to leave for the bus-stop just from this place. I considered the airport to be a bit shabby and non-german dirty, just like this monument in the puddle in front of the airport building:
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The terminal A building – the view from the bus-stop:
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