This is my first trip report on Luchtzak, but hopefully not the last. Sorry it´s not filled with pictures, but I don´t have a digital camera (yet). Yesterday I made a day trip from Valencia to London Stansted with Ryanair and easyJet.
Here we go:
I had booked the trip on October 9th. I was looking for a ticket for my girlfiend to go to Holland, and the combination VLC-STN-RTM was possible for a 150 euro return fare including taxes (VLC-STN with Ryanair, STN-RTM-STN with BasiqAir, and STN-VLC with easyJet). This instead of the 275 euro regular fare with Iberia to AMS, so quite worthwile. It had been a while since I flew for the last time, so I thought “why not” and booked some flights for me as well, where I would join her till Stansted.
20 November 2004
Ryanair flight FR8322 Valencia-London Stansted
Boeing 737-800 EI-CSI
Scheduled departure 10:50, arrival 12:05
ATD 10:30, ATA 12:00
All times are local
We arrived at the airport at 09:40 and I parked in the crew parking near the “Bloque Técnico”, the building where Air Nostrum has the crew reporting office. I still have a car park card from my job with Denim Air here in Valencia, and as nobody ever asked me to return it, I´m now enjoying a highly reduced rate for the parking
. As we didn´t have any hold luggage, check-in went very smoothly and we had our hand-written boarding cards within three minutes or so. Boarding would be at 10:30 so we went up to the cafetaria to have a coffee. The plane touched down at 09:50, thirty minutes ahead of schedule. I had checked the flight´s status on Aena´s website before leaving home and their prevision was quite correct.At 10:10 boarding for our flight was already announced, so thinking about Ryanair´s punctuality pride we went downstairs again and through security. The plane was parked at a remote stand to the right of the terminal building. Charlie Sierra India had a big German flag on the left side of the nose and the titles “Frankfurt Hahn” under it. She looked nice and clean.
We had to walk to the plane alongside the area where the GSE is parked, the first time I saw this happen as normally passengers would only walk to stands 5 and 6 of Air Nostrum. Anyway, we were welcomed by a beautiful Irish f/a and chose seats 4A and B. Everything went very smoothly and surprisingly enough the doors were already closed at 10:30, followed by a rapid engine start and taxi.
The captain explained that there would be very strong headwinds, so that our flight time would be 2 hours and 25 minutes. So by departing soon he could assure to get us in Stansted in time. This explained the early arrival… Supposing that everyone who wanted to go to London was on board this was quite a good move, as we landed in Stansted “5 minutes ahead of schedule”.
Take-off was from runway 30, followed by a right turn towards Sagunto. The flight was very nice and we enjoyed the views, especially the snow-covered Pyrrenean mountains. The French side was overcast, except along the coastline.
We both had a delicious bacon, tomato and lettuce sandwich for 5 euros, and tried our luck with a Fly to Win scratch card (without success…)
About half an hour before landing we started our descent and bumped into a thick grey layer of clouds. The last 10 minutes were quite bumpy, and we landed on Stansted´s runway 23. There wasn´t much activity at the moment, apart from the collection of Ryanair and easyJet 737´s the only other passenger jet I saw was a First Choice 757, and furthermore a Channel Express 737 and A300 on the cargo apron.
We got off the plane via the self-contained forward stairs, rushed through the English cold into the terminal and headed straight through passport control to the departure lounge and towards the check-in desk of BasiqAir for my girlfriend´s flight to Rotterdam. This also went very quick and as it was quite busy at security, she decided to continue on and off she went through security again. Talking about a smooth connection… I saw her plane depart on time, and later in the evening she told me that the flight time to Rotterdam had been only 37 minutes.
I walked around in the departure hall, had a look in the various shops and bought myself two aviation magazines. I thought the original plan of going outside and walk towards a point to take some pictures wasn´t a very good idea, seen the fact that it was only 5 degrees, I had had a bad cold just a week before, and the only incoming traffic would be Ryanair and easyJet 737´s. My quest for airline goodies such as timetables wasn´t too successful either, so I decided to just go through security and spend my time in the airside. I checked in for my easyJet flight, which was done in a few minutes. I had never departed from Stansted before, but the shopping area reminded me of Gatwick´s, with the layout of a central plaza and the shops around it.
First came a delay announcement for the easyJet flight to Nice, soon to be followed by a similar one for… Valencia. Both flights would be delayed about one hour due to late arrival of the aircraft. The strange thing was that it was only announced twice via the speakers, but the info never showed on the screens. At 14:50 it actually said “go to the gate”, so thinking that they might have done an aircraft change to operate the VLC flight on time, I boarded the shuttle train and went to gate 2. Once at the gate, the staff did announce the 55 minute delay again. Boy, Mr. O´Leary would love to hear about two easyJet delays in such a short time and none of Ryanair…
At the cargo apron on the opposite side a Dragonair Cargo 747-200F was being made ready for departure, and soon afterwards a Global Supply Systems 747-400F taxied in. Also a FedEx MD-11F and, besides the Ryanair and easyJet 737´s, a Britannia… I mean Thomson 757 which would later leave for Las Palmas.
My plane arrived simultaneously with another easyJet 737 that would operate the Malaga flight.
20 November 2004
easyJet flight 3841 London Stansted-Valencia
Boeing 737-300 G-EZYD
Scheduled departure 15:30, arrival 18:55
ATD 16:30, ATA 19:30
All times are local
Boarding finally commenced at 16:10 and went more or less smoothly. The flight was nearly fully booked, I boarded through the aft stairs and luckily managed to get a window seat. Not that there was much to see outside at this time of course, but I very much dislike aisle seats and now I could enjoy reading my Airliner World during the uneventful flight. Our flight time would be 1 hour 58 minutes. We took off from runway 23 and after quite some turning around and staying low (for traffic separation I suppose) we headed south. Once again it cleared up completely as soon as we passed the Pyrrenean mountains and were flying over Spain, and we made a nice landing on runway 30 of Valencia´s Manises airport. We were taken to the terminal by bus, and I was sitting in my car again just 15 minutes after landing.
I am delighted that both Ryanair and easyJet started to fly to Valencia and hope they will have success on these routes. Ryanair is going to add a Milan Bergamo and Rome Ciampino flight, and easyJet a Gatwick and Bristol run. Valencia really needs more choice of destinations, I´m personally hoping for a direct flight to Holland but any flight to a nice destination for a nice price will do
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