A domestic flight I've been awaiting a very long time for. London to Manchester. This route is now a a monopoly if you want to fly as easyJet, Flybe and Ryanair don't fly to MAN from any other London Airport, Virgin Atlantic LITTLE RED & BMI- British Midland no longer operate. Leaving a good 10 British Airways flights daily from LHR.
I booked the flight to go with my friend who is also a keen aviation enthusiast.
I paid £96 for my return flights and an extra £14 to reserve a window seat on both flights. Both our flights were scheduled for an Airbus A321-200. The biggest member of the Airbus Narrow-Body series.
I had previously flown on BA A321 back in 2007 from London Gatwick to Malta and back, though these were operated by BA's then franchise partner GB Airways. I later flew an Airbus A321 of Monarch Airlines on my 2015 holiday to Madeira (reviews are posted here). I hadn't flown a domestic BA flight in 18 months (August 2014 on BA 737's LGW-EDI-LGW, reports are on this site- my very first reports).
We got to London Heathrow at 5:40am and quickly made our way through security. We had checked in online the night before and security we went through with in 15 minutes as we were only just ahead of the main morning rush period.
There wasn't a big cue for our flight. It looked like that there were under 75 people getting on this Airbus A321 kitted for at least 160 people.
We sat in Row 20, however due to the lack of bums on seats, my friend hopped forward and acquired the Window seat in front of me, Row 19. On the taxi we noticed many variety of LHR traffic. Including SAS, Lufthansa, LOT, Aer Lingus and a VIP Boeing 727 parked up which arrived the week before and was staying.
We departed on time. Our flight quickly entered the clouds and we soon popped out into a beautiful sunshine and smooth flight.
I used the time before the crew served breakfast to quickly jump to some other seats for engine/wing shots at different angles.
The included breakfast was a choice of two options. On this flight- I had the Veggetarian option (the other option I will review on the next report) which included a fruit Yoghurt and a Pain Au Chocolat, with the standard breakfast choice of Tea, Coffee, Orange Juice and Water. I chose to have the Orange Juice cartoon (which I saved for later) and a cup of tea with milk. No sugar though- I am sweet enough.
Shortly after having the breakfast our plane began its descent into Manchester Airport. Even shorter flight than London to Amsterdam or even London to Edinburgh.
We landed at Manchester Airport ahead of schedule and quickly parked next to a BA A320 that was nearly ready for its return flight. Two BA planes lay over at MAN the night before making ours the 3rd flight from MAN but the first doing LHR-MAN. After getting a quick few cabin pictures on the empty plane- a visit to the Flight Deck was a tradition to be kept up.
We left the Terminal and after a bit of debating, me and my friend made our tracks to the "famous" Manchester AVP where we got some nice variety of aircraft from all walks of life. Whilst there the Avro RJX was the only aircraft open. The other three open planes were closed and the Concorde was holding two private functions that day, making bookings for a tour impossible.
After we had wrapped up at 6pm, we went back to the airport- to rough it up…
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Verdict
British Airways
8.3/10
Cabin10.0
Cabin crew10.0
Entertainment/wifi5.0
Meal/catering8.0
London - LHR
9.0/10
Efficiency10.0
Access9.0
Services7.0
Cleanliness10.0
Manchester - MAN
10.0/10
Efficiency10.0
Access10.0
Services10.0
Cleanliness10.0
Conclusion
London Heathrow- T5 was easy to get through and navigate. Very good Terminal, nice views of the aircraft, even though it was really dark.
Manchester- Camping in this airport Terminal was fun. The AVP was fantastic as always and as for the Terminal Car Park for viewing, it was as great to get my own pictures from that spot finally.
British Airways- Fantastic domestic service. I enjoyed the short but sweet flight. Definitely still happy to fly domestic BA again.
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What a coincidence that we post two reports to/from MAN in succession ! The plane seemed really empty. Too bad the weather was so-so in MAN; the Runway Visitor Park is a wonderful place on a sunny day like I had. The variety of the traffic in MAN is amazing. Thanks for sharing !
It's always nice to be on an empty flight and have extra room. I really like the look of the new BA Airbus A32X cabins, which I recently experienced myself. Despite the lack of competition on the route since the departure of Virgin Little Red, it is nice to see that BA hasn't gone too crazy jacking up prices as they would be able to with a monopoly.
Thank you. You should read my return flight- quite eventful. I am glad its not too bad. Wouldn't mind a competing service from easyJet or Flybe. My only other option to fly to MAN is with Flybe to/from Southampton...
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963 reviews
6 Comments
The plane seemed really empty.
Too bad the weather was so-so in MAN; the Runway Visitor Park is a wonderful place on a sunny day like I had.
The variety of the traffic in MAN is amazing.
Thanks for sharing !
The cabin looks pretty nice and clean, the new seats look really good!
Great spotting shots at MAN!
Have a good one, see you!
Sweet spotting at MAN! Thanks for sharing!
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