By
Edmund Smith-Asante
I am on my second Emirates flight headed for Beijing
and all I can hear about 39,000ft up in the sky on the jumbo jet Airbus A380 –
800 is the sturdy whine of the two huge jet engines and the sound of the
aircraft cutting into the cold air outside.
My first flight aboard a smaller aircraft, the Boeing
777 – 300 from the Kotoka International Airport in Accra to the Dubai
International Airport ended over nine hours ago.
I had heard a lot about the Emirates Airline and
prayed I would one day taste of their much talked about service, and voila! I
have a double dose. Two flights in 24 hours. For the first time the instruction
is not “put off all mobile phones and electronic gadgets”.
Passengers are actually allowed to put phones in
flight mode just temporarily – before take-off and during landing. Once
airborne and the fasten seat belt signs are off one can actually use an on air wifi – internet on air (I have
not been able to log-on though the icon on my laptop says I have internet
access).
Well I have had two firsts too – landing on the famed
Dubai soil in the United Arab Emirates. Although there was no opportunity to go
to town to see the famous Dubai city, I guess that would also happen one day.
For now, let me be content with the masterpiece of an
airport. Gratefully I had to wait five hours to connect my second flight so I
had all the time to not only look for my boarding gate which was like going around
in a maze, but had the opportunity to feast my eyes on some beautiful things in
some shops.
Well I did that from a distance since one needs a lot
of cash to do some few purchases – something I couldn’t boast of. As I always
believe one day it will all change.
But I must say that apart from the fact that I did not
quite fancy being sandwiched on my first flight as I was in the middle, the
service onboard wasn’t bad and it was a relatively smooth flight with an
equally smooth landing.
Dubai from the air/sky really looks beautiful with all
the lights everywhere. When we were airborne during the second flight to the
Peking International Airport in Beijing, China, I couldn’t also help noticing
that the city of Dubai is well laid out and compact. No space allowed to go
waste. Well, I will have more to say when I get an opportunity to visit the
city someday.
Double
deck
The Boeing 380 – 800 jumbo jet taking us to China has
an upper cabin, which means it has the capacity to take more people. Before I even
check its capacity I would not hesitate to hazard a guess that it can take
about 500 passengers because of its twin cabin.
This time round I got my favourite seat – at the
window and we are soaring like an eagle above the clouds – it is always
beautiful to behold.
One of the intriguing things I learnt was the fact
that the crew come from 18 countries and speak 13 languages – who can beat
that! Emirates is truly an international airline.
The Boeing 777 – 300 is likely to take over 300
passengers in its First, Business and Economy classes. Both planes seat 10 in a
row – three seats at the flanks and four in the middle.
The food from Accra was on point but I noticed that
the lunch served from Dubai was more like introducing the passengers to the
oriental food they will be eating in Beijing. One of my first experiences on an
airline too was the menu card distributed to passengers to prepare them for the
meal. Quite ingenious as it will afford those who have special diets to request
such meals, but that is if the cabin attendants can provide that.
(This
was written on Sunday, September 15 at 11am GMT)
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