New perspectives – in an airship over the Bernese Oberland

For its 20th anniversary, the airline Edelweiss Air has come up with something very special for its guests. Since May, they have been touring around Switzerland with a zepplin. The campaign started in Zurich, where I saw the funny airship float by more than once even from the office window. I overlooked the tiny cabin, which is mounted under the huge shell, and was therefore extremely surprised when I saw the first photos from the cabin. “Where’s the window?” was my first reaction. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend on the day of the first flight and afterwards the tickets went away like fresh croissants in no time. When the invitation to the press flight in Interlaken arrived in my inbox, I was skeptical. It’s like this: every time I’m in Interlaken, it rains there. A bad omen. And that’s why I sent our photographer colleague Mamo into the air as a local hero. And lo and behold – an Interlaken with sunshine. The Zepplin will fly through the beautiful Bernese Oberland until Sunday, 2 August, and will then continue its tour to Sittendorf, Grenchen and Birrfeld. The flights are all fully booked, but with a bit of luck you can get hold of one of the coveted tickets directly on site.

The plan was to fly over Lake Brienz and Lake Thun with take-off from the former military airfield in Interlaken. At 11:30 a.m. I was allowed to report to one of the tents and got my Edelweiss flight ticket for the Zeppelin flight, with departure and destination Interlaken. It was windy and the zeppelin lurched back and forth on the mast. The pilots decided to take off as quickly as possible, as it was no longer possible to fly in stronger winds.

A short briefing with the managers of Edelweiss Air and Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik Friedrichshafen took place in another tent. Here we were made aware of the safety instructions. We were told where the life jackets are, where the emergency exits are and where the “spit bags” can be found. Now we had to queue in a row of two and always walk to the zeppelin in pairs to board individually. Only one person is allowed to stand on the stairs to the entrance at a time. Boarding is not that easy, as the zeppelin keeps turning into the wind and moving up and down. During boarding, the engines revved up again and again. The pilot tried to keep the zeppelin in position as much as possible.

When we arrived in the cabin – which offers space for 12 people and 2 pilots – we had to sit down and fasten our seatbelts. I was thrilled by the huge windows, which – as it turned out – were great for taking pictures. As an aviation enthusiast, I was impressed by the modern technology on board the zeppelin with the many screens in the cockpit. It’s a bit strange to be able to look at the pilot so directly into the cockpit, but of course extremely exciting!

After a friendly “Welcome” from the Edelweiss Air Cabin Crew and the obligatory seat belt check, we started right away. We flew at a leisurely 70 km/h in the direction of Bönigen towards Lake Brienz. The 3 engines of the zeppelin were incredibly quiet compared to a larger aircraft. From the cockpit came beeps again and again and you could see buttons flashing red. “In a big airplane it has to sound similar,” I calmed down – because the cockpit is closed there, you just don’t hear it as a passenger. The pilots remained calm, adjusting the thrust of the zeppelin, which lurched in the wind again. Shortly after Bönigen, we had already reached our cruising altitude of 300 meters, were allowed to loosen our seat belts and move freely in the cabin. A dream to photograph! Two of the windows could be opened for photography and filming, but there was a big crowd for the seats. I thought queuing and waiting was stupid and so I only took pictures through the windows and tried to pay attention to the reflections. We flew on towards Iseltwald. In the rear it had a bench seat for two people with a large panoramic window, through which you had a wonderful view of Lake Brienz and the belly of the zeppelin.

By the way, with a length of 75 meters, the zeppelin is the longest aircraft operated by a Swiss airline! By comparison, Swiss’ Airbus A330-300 measures only 63.7 meters, and even the Airbus A380-800 is slightly shorter at 72.3 meters. If you think of the airships from the 30s with lengths of over 245 meters, they must have seemed gigantic!

Shortly after Iseltwald, we flew a left turn towards Niederried and had a wonderful view of the Bödeli, Lake Thun and the Niesen. It beeped again from the cockpit. Now the pilot called a cabin crew member to him and gave her the latest information about the rest of the flight. “There’s too much wind, we can’t fly to Lake Thun, but we’ll try to make another small turn over Lake Brienz,” she told us in her usual Edelweiss friendliness.

However, the curve was shortened and we had to abort the flight early because of all the wind. At a relatively steep angle, we headed towards Interlaken airfield and touched down gently. The two pilots know their craft. Interlaken is probably one of the more difficult destinations on the Zeppelin tour, especially when it comes to the winds. After the shortened press flight, the other flights of the day were cancelled due to strong winds.