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Well here it is…
42 flights between February 11th 2022 and November 29th 2022 and I bring my flying for 2022 to a final close on my 299th Flight!
I thought I'd share this in the run up to my 300th Flight in mid-January 2023, and draw out a year that led to an amazing comeback after nearly two years of stalled time!
Right, let us jump into the Flight Report!
Belfast International (aka Aldergrove) is the busiest airport in Northern Ireland. It is one of two airports that service Belfast alongside Belfast City Airport (aka George Best Airport). Belfast International was originally an old RAF base called "Aldergrove" and some of the Belfast locals refer to it still by its original name.
BFS is the busier of the airports as it can handle larger numbers of Boeing 737-NG and Airbus A320-family aircraft. The main operator here since the late 1990s has been easyJet. Jet2 has a base here offering holiday flights across Europe and Ryanair is staging another comeback here in mid-2023. Virgin Atlantic offers a seasonal Orlando service in the summer and TUI Airways (UK) offers seasonal holiday services linked to package deals. London (LGW/LTN/STN) and the major UK cities make up the majority of daily flights out of Belfast International.
In 2021 just over 2,300,000 passengers passed through BFS that year alone. In 2019 the airport handled just over 6,200,000 passengers, so numbers are recovering year by year. The budget airlines are the key to the success of the Airport.
We had checked in online before our arrival into Belfast that day, so all we had to do was head for airside and the security point. We stopped to use the bathrooms in case we had a bit of a wait after the bus ride from the city centre to Belfast International. After the four of us all regrouped it was off to security and to catch our flight home.
Security was almost deserted. It appeared we had appeared that we arrived just ahead of the main rush of people who would have wanted to catch the evenings flights back to the UK mainland. Our flight was reportedly not very busy this day regardless, similar to our outbound flight that morning.
We went airside and found the gaming area was deserted, so we had a go at the Air Hockey game, which isn't something you do often in most major UK airports. We also grabbed a quick snack at one of the cafes before it closed up, however before long it was time to go and find our gate for the flight back to Luton…
We left out of Gate 17, which took us down the corridor past the Airport Lounge for BFS, I had paid it a visit in January 2017 funny enough. Our flight tonight was going to be flown by an Airbus A320-NEO, our aircraft being specifically G-UZLD, delivered brand new to easyJet in June 2019.
I boarded towards the end of the regular boarding group and went up the forward aft stairs as I was seated towards the front of the plane on this evening flight. When flying at night I like to sit near the engines if I can as they are usually lit up and it makes filming and photos a little easier.
I noticed during boarding that our neighbour was one of the Airbus A320-neo in the easyJet fleet with the "Europcar" sticker on its rear fuselage. I was a little jealous I wasn't on it as it would have meant another special livery for the travel log- next time perhaps?
Given this is one of the later Airbus A320-neo to enter the fleet, it was decorated with the newest all black leather slimline seats. I still found them nice and comfortable. They're probably easier to maintain with cabin cleaning.
My choice of seating tonight would be Seat 9A, which overlooked the massive A320-NEO engine and the front side of the wing.
We pushed back for an on time departure, after making a quick taxi to the threshold of the runway, it was onwards and upwards for the final flight of 2022. We climbed out and turned over towards Belfast city and flew over that as we climbed towards the Irish Sea.
The crew began the on-board service for the easyJet bistro, I opted for the £7.95 meal deal. I chose the pizza with a J2O juice and premium chocolate bar that appeared to be new to the EZY menu. It may have been a very short flight, but my option to have the pizza would cover us not having time to grab anything on arrival into Luton. At the time we were due to arrive- it was a good option to play it safe.
After enjoying the inflight feed, which I had to quickly down the pizza when it finally arrived, it was time to enjoy the final minutes of the flight before our arrival, which was coming thick and fast on this trip!
We began our decent into London Luton eventually, however the thick cloud was evident once the landing lights came on. It was so bad that we didn't break the cloud/fog cover until seconds before we touched down into London Luton!
After arriving into a misty London Luton, we quickly left the runway and made a short taxi over to the parking stands where we could be sent to domestic UK arrivals.
As I was leaving the plane I got invited by the captain to come and quickly have a look in the flight deck, so I jumped at the chance to have a quick look. It had been a while since I last did this as it became a "no-go" during the pandemic years. Flight Deck visits are a privilege that I do enjoy when I can, but its important to still be respectful to crews.
As you can see we'd parked up by the easyJet hanger, I couldn't stay too long, but it was nice to see the flight deck and have a talk with the crew that evening, but I had to wrap things up and leave before I got locked out the Airport overnight.
Overall it was an amazing flight and I can't wait to kick start 2023 with my 300th Flight in mid-January!
A flight that will be fondly remembered as the year drew to a close!
Belfast International- A bit more basic and not as nice in my view as BHD, but its got its own charms and usefulness. The gaming section is a novelty that I enjoy, as it was late me and my friends used it to kill some time!
easyJet- Another solid flight experience, EZ has a reputation on being a preferred choice of budget airline in Europe over Ryanair and Wizzair.
2 Comments
Surprised to see service to ACE from Belfast, sounds like a painful redeye^^
The all black cabins look sleek compared to FR. The load factor looks very poor, but I guess that makes it quite comfortable with complimentary Euro J seating.
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