A terrible airport experience was followed by a pleasant flight on a Condor Airbus A321.

During the peak summer season, tens of flights operate between Germany and Corfu each day. As the industry sees a strong recovery, these flights have been in high demand, meaning prices were driven high early. As the most cost-effective way to reach the island, I opted to book Condor's early morning flight from Dusseldorf. Here's what I found.

I booked my flights in early May to travel to Corfu in mid-August. By this point, prices were already getting reasonably high with most carriers. Condor had one of the cheaper flights, clocking in at €287.98 ($285.84) for two people (€143.99 ($142.93) each). Interestingly, I looked at the booking engine on the morning of my flight and found that buying a ticket would've been cheaper than what I had paid three months earlier.

Condor operates as a leisure carrier, offering economy and business class fares on its short-haul services. Condor provides various fare categories for economy class bookings, including Economy Light, Economy Class, and Economy Best. We opted for Economy Class which included a 20kg checked bag and an 8kg carry-on bag.

You'd be forgiven for thinking you were traveling with a low-cost carrier during the booking process. The website offered the following add-ons on several pages of the booking process between selecting your flight and fare and inputting passenger data,

On July 28th, I received an email from the airline with the subject "CONDOR". The body opened with the text, "We're sorry to tell you that we have had to make some changes to your upcoming flight." Initially, I feared that my flight had been canceled. Thankfully this wasn't the case, and the original departure time of 06:10 had been shifted back just over an hour to 07:20. Confusingly, the old flight details were shown immediately under a "new flight details" heading.

Getting to Dusseldorf Airport from Frankfurt in time for an early morning flight isn't as easy as it sounds. The best option would've been to travel to the airport the night before and book a hotel. Unfortunately, this wasn't an option for us at the time of booking. Instead, we booked a late train departing from Frankfurt.

Typically the ICE 920 departs from Frankfurt Central Station at 23:24, arriving at Dusseldorf Airport at 03:01. Unfortunately, the day we traveled, the stop at Dusseldorf Airport was omitted due to engineering works. Instead, we had to go one stop further to Duisburg and then jump back to the airport on a non-stop regional train. In the end, this worked out in our favor. We arrived at Dusseldorf Airport station at 03:40, around 5 minutes before the suspension railway connection with the terminals began.

Both the online and terminal check-in processes seemed to take longer than necessary. As was the case with booking, there were many pages to pass through, including some upselling opportunities,

Each of these steps was undertaken on a new page. Thankfully, I was rewarded for my patience with the elusive sequence number one. Stepping into Terminal B, we saw that a sea of people had already beaten us to the airport. Condor had eight flights departing within three hours of our arrival, and all eight of these flights were largely being checked in by just eight of the ten open counters.

Four were available for passengers who were yet to check in at all. Four more were open for those who had checked in online and needed to drop a bag. One was available for passengers requiring special assistance, and the final desk was for business class passengers. Both of the latter two rarely had a queue.

As we had checked in online when check-in opened 24 hours before the flight, we joined one of the three prongs emanating from the bag drop queue. These three prongs stretched across the terminal from the point where the queue barriers ended. All in all, it took us a whole hour, from joining the queue to walking away from the check-in desks.

The actual process of dropping our bags was speedy, though I was annoyed that the agent produced two paper boarding passes for us even though we already had digital boarding passes. I continued to use my Apple Wallet boarding pass for the rest of the airport experience, rendering my unwanted physical boarding pass a waste of paper.

My experience with the security check at Dusseldorf Airport was mixed. The queue length and management of the queue were not good. However, like check-in, the actual process of the security check wasn't bad.

Let's start with the queue. Despite three automatic barriers being in place at the entrance to the check, these were all closed, with one staff member manually scanning each boarding pass. As such, a long line snaked back into the terminal, which some were joining mid-way along. Once the initial boarding pass check was completed, there was little to no-queue management before the x-ray machines and body scanners. This meant that some had a much longer wait than others, as nobody really knew where the queue went.

The check itself was pleasant as these checks go. I'd commend the airport on the size of its x-ray bins. Small bins are a real bugbear of mine, as traveling with a range of electronics means I appreciate all the space I can get my hands on. I only needed two trays, as opposed to the three I usually end up taking. Once you pass the security check, it is not immediately clear where all of the gates are as they are located on two levels.

The departure lounge in the B pier of Dusseldorf Airport wasn't much to write home about. Alongside the obligatory duty-free shop, there was also a bookshop on each level and a cafe offering hot and cold drinks and sandwiches. The redeeming factor of the terminal was its views over the apron. Everything from the airBaltic Airbus A220 to the Emirates Airbus A380 could be seen on the airfield.

Condor boards its flights in groups like many carriers, though policing these boarding groups didn't seem too strict. As we only traveled with carry-ons that would fit under the seat in front, we didn't rush to be first on the plane. Once the queue started to die down, we proceeded to scan our boarding pass and found ourselves waiting on a staircase. It quickly became apparent that we would be boarding the flight by bus.

The queue started to move again, and as we got to the front, the bus doors closed, and we were instructed to wait for the next bus. In total, it took around 15 minutes between scanning our boarding passes before we set foot on a bus. Once the bus started moving, we discovered that the aircraft was parked on possibly the furthest stand from the terminal.

Boarding was only via the front of the Airbus A321 despite being on a remote stand. As we were seated in row 32, it was a long walk down the already packed cabin. Crew said good morning as we boarded, though there were no handouts like the anti-septic wipes given when you board a Lufthansa flight.

There's not much to be said about the seating on the aircraft. The entire plane had a standard 3-3 layout with the middle seats blocked in business class. The legroom was okay, and the seats had leather covers. The plane was eight and a half years old, which showed in the seat. Where thousands had sat in 32A over the years, the seat's padding had moved, creating a ridge at the back. This meant sitting right back on the seat was uncomfortable, with a slight slouch proving much more comfortable.

Surprisingly, the armrests offered an in-flight radio service that seemed to be working, though I didn't have a headset with which I could test it. The aircraft had sat on the ground in Dusseldorf for 17 hours since its last flight, though I wasn't convinced it had been given a thorough clean. While the aircraft had a shiny new interior, the interior appeared to be tired.

As we pushed back, the crew completed a manual safety demonstration and secured the cabin. The one benefit of our aircraft being parked so far from the terminal was that the taxi for departure was short and sweet. Before we knew it, we were climbing out over the city of Dusseldorf with impressive views. I must admit that the white and red striped wingtip, though lacking the blue, kept making me think that I was on an American Airlines flight.

Once they were able, the crew left their seats and began preparing the cabin for the meal service. Food is not generally included in economy fares, though two different options are available for those wishing to dine in-flight. Full meals can be pre-ordered for an additional cost ahead of departure. Meanwhile, a menu of snacks and drinks is available onboard the flight.

Ahead of the flight, I opted to buy two Full English Breakfasts at €9.99 each. As soon as the meal service commenced, these were immediately brought to us before the trolley was pushed through the entire cabin. After bringing our meal, the crew returned and offered us complimentary water or orange juice.

As soon as our orange juice had been poured, it became clear that something was happening in the cabin. The drinks trolley was swiftly stored, and the crew ran to the cabin's center. Seconds later, an announcement was made over the cabin asking any doctors onboard the flight to proceed to the middle of the aircraft. At this point, roughly six passengers lept up and moved to the incident. Fortunately for the ill person and the flight, it seemed the medical emergency was successfully resolved, and the flight proceeded to Corfu as planned.

The breakfast was served in a plastic bowl covered in foil. Along with the meal was a set of bamboo cutlery and a small box containing a couple of tiny cakes, which I didn't try. The main meal consisted of the following components,

In my opinion, the portion size was just right. However, the price seemed a little high for the meal, with €6.99 seeming slightly more reasonable for what you got. Once I finished my meal, my waste was collected, and there was enough time for an upright nap until the top of the descent.

At the top of the descent, the captain came onto the intercom to explain that we would be starting our descent into Corfu and providing the standard spiel about the weather at our destination. A little bit later, she also gave a little bit more information about our approach to the airport, far more than would typically be expected from a pilot.

We flew south along the island's coast, giving perfect views from the left-hand side. After a couple of left turns, we were lined up with the runway and on our final approach into Corfu. Sitting on the left-hand side while landing provides stunning views of the island, and towards the end of the approach, you feel almost level with some of the hotels. The landing was pretty uneventful, though once the aircraft started its taxi, a wave of applause filled the cabin.

The taxi to the terminal was pretty short, and we parked next to a couple of easyJet Airbus A320s. Unlike boarding the flight in Dusseldorf, deplaning the aircraft was achieved by both the front and rear exits. As we were leaving the plane via the rear, I noted that the last row of seats on the left of the aircraft was reserved for the crew to rest during the flight.

Corfu has no jet bridges, meaning we had to walk across the apron to the terminal. As we had arrived on an intra-Schengen flight, there was no passport control, and we came straight into the baggage reclaim hall. Remember from above that I didn't pay extra for priority baggage handling. Despite this, our suitcase was the fifth one to appear on the belt.

Once we grabbed our bag, we proceeded through the blue EU arrivals customs channel. Corfu Airport is operated by Fraport. The terminal has a light and airy feel and gives a modern and fresh impression, unlike the dated Heraklion terminal over on the Greek island of Crete.

Our flight, DE1612, was operated by D-ATCG, an eight-and-a-half-year-old Airbus A321. Wearing the new red and white Condor stripes livery, the aircraft had completed 12,750 flight hours (1.45 years) across 4,678 flights as of December 31st, 2021. Its current estimated market value is listed on ch-aviation.com as $31.09 million.

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Flight DE1612 was scheduled to depart from Dusseldorf Airport (DUS) at 07:20, with a planned Corfu Airport (CFU) arrival of 10:45. On August 15th, the aircraft got airborne with a delay of 18 minutes at 07:38. The plane made up some time in the air during the two-hour 14-minute flight, landing just seven minutes late at 10:52. The grand circle distance between Dusseldorf and Corfu is 1,651 kilometers.

In summary, the airport experience in Dusseldorf was well below par, mainly due to the long waits at each stage. Despite this, the onboard experience was pleasant, and I would choose to fly with Condor again in the future.

Have you flown with Condor on the Airbus A321? How was your experience? Let us know what you think and why in the comments down below!

Sources: ch-avitaion.com, FlightRadar24.com

Content Manager – Degree educated in Aerospace Technology, this certified pilot is a passionate specialist in European aviation. Working closely with British Airways, Lufthansa and others, Tom provides commentary on topical issues for outlets including the BBC. Based in Frankfurt, Germany.