CEOI 2025 Blog

Monday, July 7 (Zeno)

The commencement of our journey took place at Basle-Mulhouse airport (LFSB). Our plane was to depart at 15:50 local time, so naturally we had to arrive extremely early, at 13:00. Rumor has it that Cheng was unsure about the optimal time to arrive at the airport and therefore asked ChatGPT™ for high-quality airport advice.

The technology of the security check at Basle-Mulkhouse airport is slightly less capable than its counterpart at Zurich airport, and of course no match against the cutting-edge technology used at Geneva Contrin International Airport [1].

As we had some time before our departure we went to eat lunch where Cheng got scammed and paid CHF 2.50 for 500ml of water. During lunch we noticed due that our plane was delayed by a whopping 5 minutes, which would’ve been a cause for celebration at Zurich airport. There was also a lot of talk about terrorists.

After finishing lunch we made our way to the gate, but not before engaging in some gambling where we studied stochastics and won airport merch, EuroVision merch aswell as USB-A, USB-C, microUSB and Thunderbolt cables (except Myriam, who got nothing useful). Once there we were pleased to discover that our plane was expected to be on time once more. The reality however, was very different. Our plane arrived about 30 minutes behind schedule.

When we were finally able to board Jonathan and Myriam were fighting over the window seat. Little did Myriam realise that this was Jonathan’s first time on a plane. After boarding was complete, we waited another 15 minutes before pushing back, and then the real fun began. Due to the delay we missed our departure slot and were assigned a CTOT (Calculated Take-off Time) one and a half hours in the future (from that point), but most didn’t understand why. This resulted in a delay of over two hours, something that wouldn’t have happened at Geneva Contrin International Airport. In total we spent over 5 hours at the airport, thanks to ChatGPT’s accurate calculations.

As it was Jonathan’s first time flying we explained to him what would happen if the DHL plane next to us would crash into our plane, how “fast” planes are when taxiing, how lift works, what turbulence is, how the cabin is pressurized, what to do with babies during an emergency landing and how the plane could land automatically. Myriam even brought a book describing how to land a plane if you fell out through the cockpit window.

So at about 16:15 local time we were finally able to take off and depart Basle-Mulhouse airport from runway 15 on the ELBEG7S departure. The flight went smoothly and we even discovered what clouds are and we held high-level discussions about aviation.

Our flight experience can be summarised in one simple video: [2]

When landing at Cluj-Napoca there was some confusion on the leaders’ end about timezones, but we were able to conclude that due to physical limitations the aircraft did in fact not fly twice as fast as intended. The final delay was roughly two hours.