Montreal Pierre Elliott Trudeau / Dorval

After I had looked on one of the screen in the terminal, where my flight to LHR would depart, I went over to the international terminal. The Maple Leaf Lounge is not that big, but was not that full anymore with the most Air Canada / Star Alliance international flights being in the final boarding process and those passengers had already left the lounge.

I grabbed something from the buffet to eat and a glass of Pinot Grigio. The offerings were two different choices of pasta, mixed salad, vegetables and two soups. Bread was also available. A wide selection of beverage, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, were offered in this lounge like in Toronto.

WiFi was free and so I checked e-mails and surfed the web a few minutes.

I watched the planes leaving, especially the Air France A380 got a bit of attention from the lounge and quite a few passengers used the good view and took pictures. In front of the lounge was the only 747-400 of Royal Air Marroc in the final stage of departure which was delayed more than hour. Boarding had already been underway and looked quite chaotic as I passed the gate area earlier on my way to the lounge.

Boarding was announced to begin at 21:30 but at this time the plane was not yet there so I returned to the lounge for the next 15 minutes. Boarding had not started as I returned 20 minutes later but was announced to start in the next minutes as usual with families traveling with small children, Passengers traveling in Business Class and Aeroplan Elites and Star Gold. And like their colleagues in Toronto this was enforced. One agent was asking the people and queuing about the class of travel and checked boarding passes as well and wanted to see the frequent flyer card if one was traveling in Economy Class. Sometimes I wish other Star Alliance Airlines were as strict as their colleagues here in Montreal.

03 July 2011
YUL - LHR
[Montreal Pierre Elliott Trudeau / Dorval – London Heathrow]
AC 866 (Air Canada); Boeing 767-300 (C-FMXC)
Gate B 59
22:25 – 10:00 [effective 22:35 – 10:27]
Economy Class
Seat 24 A

As I entered the plane I was friendly greeted and the boarding pass was checked and I was shown direction to my seat. As a frequent traveler I already knew where to proceed.

The cabin was not cleaned very well; especially the floor still had remaining items from the previous flight. It seems another delay had caused only a fast cleaning and the carpet in the cabin was not hovered properly. Blankets and pillows were already placed on the seat.

I stored my belongings quite easily in the still deserted rear Economy Class Cabin and waited for the other passengers to board the plane. My plan of a re seating had worked and I was able to get a free seat next to me. The plane was not full. I would rate the load around 85%.

The captain welcomed us on board. Unfortunately the intercom system was very weak and one could barely understand any announcement made. Later the safety video was shown.

Our Boeing 767-333 (ER) joined the fleet of Air Canada on March 13, 1996. It offered 24 lie flat seats in Executive Class, the Business Class of Air Canada and 187 seats in Economy Class, configured in 2-3-2 while Business is 1-1-1 in herringbone style. Seat pitch and seat width is the same as for the flight from Toronto to Montreal. But unlike the ex Canadian 767-375 ER this 767-333 ER was powered by two Pratt & Whitney PW 4060 with 60000 lbf. This engine is ETOPS-180 certified. The engine is also used in modified variations on Boeing 747-400, 777 and MD 81 as well as Airbus A300 and Airbus A 310.
The number of the engine, i.e. 4060 reads as following: the first digit is the model type, in this case the 4 for the 4000er series. The second digit is for the airplane manufacturer with 0 for Boeing, 1 for Airbus, 4 for MD-11 and the last two digits are the thrust in US pounds. This make it easy to spot that this engine has a thrust of 60(000) lbf.

We pushed back at 22:35 ten minutes behind schedule .Meanwhile the rain had arrived in Montreal, which was announced in the weather forecast. We taxied to the runway and at 23:09 the captain powered the Pratt and Whitney engines and we climbed into the rainy Canadian sky. The first minutes were a bit bumpy and the seat belt sign remained turned on for a bit longer than usual and the crew had to remain on their seats, but it seems it was less bumpy than expected and after a few minutes they could leave their seats. First of all the headphones were distributed.

I chatted with the lady on 21 D about the flight and our destinations. She was flying to London and continued to Warsaw. She was born in Poland and moved to Canada 45 years ago but tried to return every two to three years. We chatted a bit about Europe, the fall of the iron curtain, how much easier it is to travel now compared to 20 years ago.

Approximately twenty minutes later the meal service started. I skipped dinner as I had already eaten in the lounge but had a ginger ale and later a tea. The flight attendants were friendly but not always that attentive. Although I requested a tea without cream I got it with cream. And this time I doubt that it was my not always correct pronunciation. Anyway, a minor issue.

Lights were switched off after close to 2 hours in flight and the crew lowered the shades of those passengers, who already fell asleep.

The crew did a few beverage rounds during the flight offering water and orange and apple juice. I worked on various reports and read in a German newspaper I picked up in the lounge. The flight time passed quite fast and I did not sleep at all. Soon later the lights were turned on again.

Approximately 70 minutes prior to landing in Heathrow a muffin was offered as breakfast snack and again a beverage round. The muffin was a banana-hazelnut-muffin and a cup of coffee accompanied this quick breakfast. Soon later the items were collected and we began our descend into LHR and had to fly waiting patterns and the map showed our approach not longer at 10:11 but now 10:25. It also was bit bumpy for the last minutes inflight, but we touched down safely at 10:22, close to 30 minutes behind schedule and taxied quite a bit for our gate A 30 at terminal 3. It took some time before I finally was able to get off board this 767.

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