18 reviews
Hello everyone and welcome on this report, an archive that just took me 4 years to publish!
I felt like reporting it for mainly 2 reasons:
- it is the only Flight Report on this route
- it was booked with Flybe but I ended up on a Bulgaria Air plane…
So why Southend airport? Because by train is not that expensive to reach my home in East London, and because my office was closer than going to Heathrow, which means easier to catch the plane on a friday evening.
Also the airport is super small, even smaller than London City which of course is ideal to shrink the required time at the airpor
Flybe was a small company and member of the Avios scheme, which meant that I was still able to build up my miles.
Avios earned with this flight: 130
Interestingly enough, Bulgaria Air features 8 business class seats amongst the 100 seater plane, which weren't sold as such as per the flybe wet lease flight.
The airport is so easy to get to - look this is the view from the train station…
It wasn't the most sunny of days unfortunately.
If you haven't done your check in, you can do it on the ground floor next to arrivals, otherwise you can just directly go to the first floor through security - possibly the quickest I have been to in Europe.
Boarding happened during a rare blue sky patch on the usual grey sky.
To my great surprise, we didn't board on the plane of the previous picture but on an e190 of Bulgaria air which was clearly wet leased for a couple of days for Flybe.
Aircraft: Embraer E190STD
Registration: LZ-VAR
Engines: 2x CFM34
Age: 10 Years
Layout: C8 Y92
Observation: Now part of Tap Portugal (with the tail still painted as Bulgaria Air)
The crew is also bulgarian, some of them speak an impeccable english, some others don't really.
We are clearly on a bulgarian plane…
After take off the sky becomes clearer and I can enjoy the view on the Thames / North sea.
and the flight magazine, an historical artefact now since the company filed for bankrupcy for the second time…
A last picture from the outside view of the T1A building..
Flybe: a nice flight overall. Crew was professional and caring despite some of them struggling with english.
A bit of a lack of entertainment, and the buy on board is always a shame.
LYS: airport very efficient and fluid as usual.
SEN: airport that defines the word efficiency to me, great if you live in essex, a bit less if you live in London.
For memory here are my criteria
-Entertainment: None < 4.5 Magazine 6< an application 7< Wifi 8 < IFE = 10
-Cabin: visually interesting, comfortable and practicle> 7.5. For example, Ironing boards are <7
-Crew: Went for the extra mile, they outdone themselves > 7.5
-Repas: : Buy On Board <5 Free <7.5< Visually interesting, nice in quantity and quality
4 Comments
Absolutely! These reports on lesser known airports and airlines are my personal favorites. And, as you mention in your report, the experience can be so much better than that at larger airports and better known airlines!
That's 20F, right? You had me scratching my head, trying to remember how Roman numerals work. I thought "Is it twenty... FFFive????" 😆
By the way, do you know how Romans ordered five beers? They made this gesture at the waiter: ✌️ (V) lol
Wow! They are not joking when they say the airport is just some steps from the train station!
Better for photos, anyway
Actually, you were flying on a zombi! Flybe resurrected and died again!!
Thanks for sharing this "accidental" Bulgaria Air flight, Chris!
Sorry I am not publishing a lot in English nowadays, but more in french… I will however publish the series about my honeymoon in english
Yes there is something “cute” and easy with smaller airports and smaller jets!
Ahaha no it is just that I can’t seem to retrieve my boarding pass so I can’t really know for sure.
Lol ahahahah I thought they preferred wine to beer!
Ahahah indeed!
Thanks for stopping by Nelson again :)
I didn’t know that for southend airport, I thought that at some point Ryanair tried to set up a base there too, but anyway it is always a bit sad when a single company operates at an airport.
Yes the livery was a pleasant surprise for me too, shame I didn’t seem to have taken a picture of the fuselage.
See you soon!
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