After a pleasant short stay in Dublin I had to fly back home.
At Dublin Airport we had no problem finding a parking space since we had used the reliable, inexpensive and comfortable ‘Airlink’ service provided by Dublin Bus.
Check-in procedures for the last flight from Dublin to Charleroi began two hours before departure time and we got our usual ‘priority cards’.
The security controls were fast, efficient and the staff really helpful. Since we were early at the airport we could spend some time window-shopping and buying the last Irish articles.
In Dublin, Ryanair uses a particular terminal, located away from the other gates. In fact, the circular ‘terminal’ looks like the former ‘A’ gates you had in Brussels in 1997-98.
On the apron I could spot several interesting birds. I got the impression the Irish budget carrier was displaying some of its famous flying billboards. Unfortunately it was around 6pm and at that time of the year, it is already pitch dark. Anyway, in the night I could see the Hertz, Jaguar and Kilkeny planes.
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/382633/M/ http://www.airliners.net/open.file/190741/M/
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/480724/M/
I asked my parents to help and join me in my ‘keep our fingers crossed’ action to get one of these special birds for our inward journey but it did not do the job. In my opinion, the cyber-requests to ‘Dear Mr Ryanair’ are much more effective.
As a result, the Hertz-logo jet carried passengers to Birmingham and we had to wait for the passengers from Charleroi to disembark EI-COA before boarding our flight to Charleroi.
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/504609/M/
In my previous report, I referred to a sense of confusion when you board a former Britannia 732 but EI-COA is even more confusing. Let us turn back to the history of the bird to get a better understanding of its condition.
C/N 22637-848 started its carreer in 03/1982 with both German flag- and charter-carrier Lufthansa and Condor.
In the mid eighies in a bare-metal dress
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/289438/M/ http://www.airliners.net/open.file/396955/M/
Lufthansa metal scheme with a Sabena colleague behind
From the German life of the Boeing, there are still some signs in German but some of them have been re-labelled during its lease of life with TAP-Air Portugal (as CS-TCS) A result, you get either ‘No smoking’ or ‘Nicht rauchen’ or the Portuguese translation...
In 1997 it was Ryanair’s Christmas plane before getting its present livery.
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/499487/M/
Thanks to our priority cards, we were amongst the first to board the plane and could get the seats with a generous pitch (see my previous report). Moreover the load factor was about 70-75% on this Monday evening. The plane was not as clean as on the outward journey...
That time we got tapped safety lectures in English, French and “Dutch” (or the Ryanair variation of this language)…
The flight was even as bumpy as the previous and I asked one of the stewardesses if she could give me our route… and she reluctantly supplied me with this information: Dublin – Liverpool – London – Oostende – Charleroi. However I don’t reportedly look like a highjacker… but I look a bit like a younger brother of EasyJet’s Stelios
We circled for a long time before landing very smoothly in Charleroi… ‘5 minutes ahead of schedule’ as Ryanair always likes to point out.
We got the luggage rather quickly but had to wait a long time for the shuttle-bus to the ‘long-distance-stay-park’ facilities. The last leg of my journey home was somewhat delayed due to a dead battery… because we had forgotten the courtesy light… Damned bad-lit parking space @ CRL!
I hope you enjoyed the report as much as I enjoyed my stay in Dublin...
And don't forget to check the courtesy light of you car before leaving it... This can save you time and €€€s
Regards
BeN
