Carcassonne Day One : Ryanair Flight from London Stansted to Carcassonne

Our dining treat whilst waiting for the flight was a £4.99 Boots meal deal and this was rather agreeable…. Anyway, I’m not sure that even my two loyal blog readers are much interested in that, but there we go. My blog, I can bore whoever I like.

We arrived at the gate before the previous flight had even left, this is the departure to Memmingen which it occurred to me that I haven’t visited before. Incidentally, don’t Ryanair have a lot of vans?

There we go, the departure board changed and we’re ready for the off.

We paid £15 each for this flight, so it’d be hard to complain too much, and indeed I didn’t find anything to complain about anyway. Not that I go looking for things to complain about I’d better add there. The efficiency from Ryanair is impressive, they’ve got passengers waiting to board the flight before the passengers from the inbound flight have left the aircraft and it certainly works for them in terms of the timings. It means that passengers have to stand and wait, which is sub-optimal for those who mobility issues, but I’ll give them their mark for their planning proficiency.

I had plenty of time to take photos of the aircraft. Liam was excited that the cockpit had a window that opened. It then emerged that he hadn’t flown overseas since we went to Malta the week before Covid caused so many problems. He needs to get out more as well it seems….

And a photo of the aforementioned window.

I’m too tight to pay for a specific seat on board, but I was surprised and delighted to get 10A, a window seat, without paying. Liam also got fortunate, he got 4A or something similar. After boarding, Liam messaged to say they had a planning issue with a customer with a disability, but they resolved it promptly, meaning that we departed on time. The crew were efficient and from I saw worked hard.

I was in prime position to spot if the engine fell out. I’m pleased to say that it didn’t.

The flight went quickly, not least because I fell asleep for most of it. I’ve visited Carcassonne before, but it was pre-blog (a bit like before cameras, it’s a dark age for me) and I also used my camera to take most of the photos and so Google hasn’t carefully logged them all for me. I do worry slightly when I forget so much about a past trip.

Liam disembarking…. It’s a building which feels more constructed for functionality rather than design appeal.

The aircraft was clean, well maintained and is registration EI-DWV, a 16 year old Boeing 737 which must be one of the older ones in their fleet. My record on recording these things is a bit patchy, but I don’t think I’ve been on this aircraft before.

Back to the flight, this was an pretty impeccable offering from Ryanair at a price that was bordering on the ridiculous. I might have worked for BA in the past and my affinity is with them, but this Ryanair effort was well managed, efficient and respectful to the passengers. The opportunity that they give people to travel at affordable rates really is notable.

As for the airport, other than for the odd situation with insufficient toilets in the arrival area (there’s more in departures) which caused some queues, it was all ordered and logical taking us under 20 minutes to get from the aircraft to the front of the terminal building. We weren’t delayed by not having EU passports, the border control desk was just dealing with this flight which I think was the last of the day, so everyone was in the same queue and it was fast moving. All in all, one of those flights where there’s nothing much of note to write, which is really for the best as it means that everyone went well.