Late last year I flew Edelweiss Air from Pristina to Zurich, which was scheduled on the A340-300 aircraft. I purchased an open-jaw ticket, with my return flight from Zurich to Tirana on Swiss. The return ticket cost 175 euros. I should note that this ticket was purchased on the day of the flight itself, a couple of hours beforehand, so the overall price was very good considering the flight was actually quite full.
In the morning I received an email that the flight was delayed by five hours. Check-in time was also moved accordingly. The reason for this was that Edelweiss was having issues with its wide-body fleet that month. On November 19 one of Edelweiss’ A350-900s had an incident in Bogota, whereby the plane was struck by a baggage cart, causing damage to the engine. Given how small Edelweiss’ long-haul fleet is, this plane grounding had major operational implications for the airline. As a result, Edelweiss had to swap around the planes operating in some other markets. For example, services to Muscat, Oman were swapped from an A340 to an A320. Edelweiss still kept the A340 on the Pristina route. Towards the end of the year and early this month they scheduled wide-bodies to Pristina due to demand.
At check-in I purchased an upgrade to business class, which was being offered for a fixed price of 139 euros. The A340 was parked on gate 203.
The cabin looked well maintained and is in an alternating 1-2-1 and 2-2-1 configuration. One of the oddities is that Edelweiss Air’s business class cabin is located in the middle of the aircraft between two economy class cabins. So, you have overwing views in business class. I’m not sure if any other airline has this kind of set up.
Overall, the load factor on the flight was 92%. The seat itself was wide and comfortable for the short hop to Zurich, with ample legroom and the ability to fully recline. Each seat had a bottle of water and wet wipes upon boarding.
I didn’t explore the full IFE options, only checking flight map on the personal TV screen. We were offered a welcome drink before departure and after take-off were given a simple meal (forgot to take photo), which I wouldn’t say was great but decent for the short flight time. After that we were offered coffee and tea, with some chocolates. In economy, passengers were offered gingerbread and drinks.
Overall, the flight was good and it was nice to fly a wide-body on an intra-European flight lasting under two hours. I later found out that passengers were informed about the flight delay the day before the flights. However, considering my late booking I only received the email a few hours before original departure time.
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