Review of Ryanair flight Bournemouth → Edinburgh in Economy

A Scottish Return to BOH!

Ryanair and its subsidiaries are the largest passenger airline operator at Bournemouth Hurn.

Ryanair has been a fixture at Bournemouth Hurn since the late 1990s. It has operated various routes across Europe at various times, though its main business has been "Bucket and Spade" holiday routes to Spain, Greece, Italy, Malta and Portugal. Ryanair has become the largest operator at the Airport, the airline has some competition with TUI Airways UK (who base planes there) whilst easyJet offers a sole Geneva service in Winter- seemingly trying not to step on Ryanair's toes.

At one point Ryanair operated a Bournemouth Hurn to Edinburgh Airport route, but that flew into the history book in the early 2010s. For almost a decade BOH did not have any dedicated domestic services, until 2021…

Due to the pandemic, easyJet saw a means of introducing a series of domestic routes due to international travel restrictions running across the Summer 2021 season Bournemouth Hurn to Edinburgh, Belfast and Liverpool, two of which I did fly on and covered on this site.

Ryanair at the time of writing offers 19 destinations out of Bournemouth Airport both year round and seasonal.

Unfortunately easyJet decided not to follow up with more seasonal flights around the UK, and the three routes vanished in September 2021. That was the end of domestic UK flights until late 2022.

Ryanair had been introducing "City Break" locations to its network at Bournemouth Hurn which had seen some success (around the pandemic) including relaunching a Dublin route alongside Krakow, Budapest and Lisbon. In late 2022 Ryanair announced some more new routes- including a brand new seasonal service between Bournemouth Hurn and Edinburgh Airport!

Ryanair UK operates a unique STN-EDI-BOH-EDI-STN rotation to make this service possible for its parent company.

Due to Brexit, Ryanair opted to set up a UK spin-off airline "Ryanair UK" which was set up in the event of a "Hard Brexit" which didn't occur, but it gave Ryanair the opportunity to return to a lucrative UK Domestic market. They've set up various routes using planes based at Manchester Airport, Birmingham Airport and London Stansted.

Ryanair opted to serve this route in a "W" fashion. The flight and crew originate at London Stansted, fly to Edinburgh, then down to Bournemouth Hurn, back to Edinburgh then finally back to London Stansted… Quite a day for any crews assigned to the flight!

Bournemouth Hurn flight Experience

Welcome to Bournemouth Hurn Airport, one of five airports that serve the South or South-West of England outside of London. It was one of many RAF Airfields established in World War 2, and the only one surviving as an active airfield in the Bournemouth area. 

The airfield became a civilian airfield in 1947, and for years it was a main gateway for commercial airlines flying to London until more suitable airports opened (i.e London Heathrow and London Gatwick). The airport has had its fair change of ownership and various airlines trying their luck. But as of 2023 it is owned by Regional and City Airport's Group and the three main airlines here are Ryanair, TUI Airways UK and easyJet.

I arrived with enough time to get airside and sit down for a quick drink airside. I didn't require the check in desks. BOH does offer a FAST TRACK service, but in my times flying from Bournemouth Hurn its rarely worth buying it. Unless you expect to be tight for time getting to the Airport or you get it included as part of a package fare- my advice is don't worry about it.

The sole facility of notable usage in Bournemouth Airport is their Navigator Bar and Café. A WH Smith newsagent is open airside too and there you can buy last minute supplies or even a cheeky self-catering meal deal or snacks if you don't fancy Airline food. I personally like the Ryanair Getaway Café- but a lot of weird people don't!

Bournemouth Hurn Airport has no airside lounge facilities, compare to its rival airports in the South-West, all though the scheduled airline services probably reflect as to why investing in one isn't a priority.

It will come as a surprise to no one that the flight ended up being almost 90 minutes late due to a delay getting out of either London Stansted or Edinburgh Airport… I could have done what "normal people" do on Airline UK and gone over and complained at the gate staff, instead I opted to go an grab a crafty half pint of Camden Town beer from the Navigator, put my headphones in my ears and chill to some classic rock music whilst tracking my flight on its way from Edinburgh to Bournemouth.

Eventually the plane arrived, after a quick turn around

Ryanair's BOH-EDI Return (RK1132)

Today we found ourselves on a newly transferred 14 year old Boeing 737-8AS(WL), G-RUKK, this plane entered the Ryanair UK fleet on February 22nd 2023. The plane was built for the Irish mainline airline Ryanair in February 2009 as EI-EBH. From 2010-2016 the aircraft sported stickers promoting the City of Nyköping, Sweden, during a time where Ryanair used its planes to advertise locations in Europe as flying billboards- a novel way of making money and promoting tourism.

G-RUKK of the Ryanair UK fleet operated this inaugural flight. 

I boarded through the rear of the plane as my seat for this flight was Seat 27F, in the last five rows of the plane. 

In order to board at BOH, the airport uses a ramp which is very similar to what you see at USA Airports for Allegiant and Frontier flights. Given the age demographic of the Dorset county, this is probably best for people with limited or restricted mobility and its likely much cheaper to use when moving wheel chair users onto the plane, instead of using an electronic bus.

Once we had completed boarding, we had a short wait for our arrival slot in Edinburgh Airport to be reassigned, and before long we were pushing back and on our taxi over to the Runway. We had a short taxi that day over to Runway 26. 

Our flight was leaving in between the departure and arrival of the based TUI Airways and Ryanair flights that had gone off to warmer climates that day. Making us the only flight in a good 3 hour gap, despite it being quite late!

We passed the JETS Hanger where various corporate jets get work done on. Prior to 2008 it used to be the site of the Bournemouth Aviation Museum prior to their eviction, the hangar was also the home to a vintage jet restoration company who specialised in DeHavilland and Hawker cold war fighters.

A red Hawker Hunter on a concrete stand is all that remains of the sites former occupation. 

Lining up on Runway 26, the plane spooled up and before we knew it we were racing into the sky, flying over Poole and Ringwood as we climbed out of Bournemouth Hurn. We then made the relevant turns to face North and head onwards for Edinburgh!

We got to our cruising altitude, I think it was about 26,000ft or 28,000ft as the short flight doesn't fully warrant us being over 30,000ft.

The crew did the Getaway Café service, quite a few people bought items for consumption, me included. 

I kept it simple for this short flight, a cup of tea and a kit-kat chocolate bar. The prices were all in Euro, but converted on my card it came to roughly £2.50p, Ryanair doesn't take cash payments anymore on flights.

Tea and Chocolate anyone?

We cruised along the UK passing West of London, East of Birmingham, passing between Manchester & Liverpool west of our flight and to the east Sheffield and Leeds. We began to descend over Carlisle before turning at the boarder to line-up for Edinburgh Airport from the mainland (opposed to the sea as I've done most times).

Whilst it was quite cloudy at various parts of the UK that day, above 20,000ft it was all nice weather and sunshine!

We eventually arrived into a cloudy Edinburgh Airport around 13:00pm GMT, about an hour later than our scheduled arrival, so we did make up quite a bit of the lost time, which was good. Though we had a long taxi to the furthest end of the Airport once we landed.

I held back and opted to let the other passengers leave the aircraft, which would allow me more freedom to complete my filming of the flight and grab a few more aircraft photos for this report.

The cabin of our Ryanair flight is the "Hybrid Cabin" design where the new Ryanair light weight seats are included, but not the Boeing Sky Interior on post-2016 delivered Boeing 737-800 and Boeing 737-8MAX.

I left out the rear stairs again and did the walk around the aircraft before entering the Terminal and making my way over to the domestic arrivals, before starting my day in the city of Edinburgh.

Without further ado, that basically concluded the flight from Bournemouth to Edinburgh. I am glad this service is back and I hope it remains as either a summer seasonal route or elevate to an all year around service. Ryanair & the current BOH owners are really pushing the city break market for more custom at BOH, which is good to see.

Given how saturated the London Airports are and that more people want to reduce their environmental impact on their holidays, its creating demand for airlines to enter regional markets around the UK again for the first time since the 2008 Global Recession, when almost every airline fortified in the major city hubs like London, Manchester and Birmingham.