I flew with Swiss Air International to Zurich this time, since the comparable fare with British Airways was twice the price. It was a long walk from security to departure gate #32 at Terminal 1 London Heathrow, a princely walk of over 25 minutes. On the way, I met a delightful Malaysian Chinese lady who started talking to me. She lives in Cirencester, works at Zug in pharmaceutical marketing procurement, and does the weekly commute between UK and Zurich. We hit it off instantly. Rather disappointingly, Swiss Air Int'l was late, thus slightly denting my faith in Swiss punctuality. Unlike British Airways, the Airbus A321 was served by 3 crew members, one for business class and two for economy class. British Airways fields 6 for a similar aircraft. No wonder it took almost the entire trip for the Swiss air crew to serve tea and coffee to a fully loaded economy cabin. This time, Zurich was wet, grey and rather miserable. There was a subdued atmosphere in the office, probably because everyone realises the enormity of the task against the looming deadline.
