Review of Ryanair flight Bournemouth → Luqa in Economy

A Return to Malta (2008-2024)

Well I finally revisited the lovely Mediterranean island of Malta for the first time since my last family holiday there, it only took me… 16 Years!!!

Malta is an island I had spent two week long family holidays at during 2007 and 2008, but that was my last visit. It was so long ago that I flew on GB Airways from London Gatwick (on behalf of British Airways) on both holidays. Who remembers GB Airways?

But a lot happened in those 16 years. I left Primary school six months later, did my 5 years of Secondary School as well as three years in College (aka. Sixth Form). I got my first part time job before finding my feet in a job I've held for some 7 years now, I started flying around Europe, North America, Asia and Australia clocking up some 300+ flights in that time, but a return to Malta always sat on the list gathering dust. Then the pandemic happened which held me up for nearly 2 years…

But early 2024 rolls around and the news of Malta's flag carrier being wound down after a stellar 50 year existence became solidified, I wanted to fly this airline before it flew into the history books and I found a reasonably priced afternoon flight from Malta to London for only £89, but I still needed to get out to Malta.

I thought this would be a bit of a task given how expensive flying to/from Malta can get around the holidays and I'd just come off the Australia trip as well as my birthday trip being around the corner, but I got a break, instead of needing a cheap Ryanair or easyJet flight to get to Malta from London Gatwick or London Stansted which I had been expecting, Ryanair had a flight on the day I was eyeballing the MLA-LHR flight flying out of Bournemouth Hurn, my local airport, and the kicker was it was a 06:30am flight at only £23 one-way!

A day trip to Malta? From the United Kingdom? 2x Three Hour flights in one day? Surely no one would be mad enough to attempt that!

Well that's exactly what I did just to fly on Air Malta and get a quick trip to Valletta, Malta having not been back in 16 years!

Ryanair FR8316 (BOH-MLA)

I started off at Bournemouth Hurn Airport, I got there just after 5am, I was flying hand luggage only and had already checked in online, so I was all good to come to this quiet and small southern airport just about 90 minutes before take off.

I went through to security and got through in about 5-10 minutes, it wasn't a long process despite it starting to pick up with people coming for the Malta flight and a TUI flight departing to the Canary Islands about 2 hours later. After a quick route march through one of the UK's smallest Duty Free shops, it was into the departure lounge. The BOH departure area is very basic compare to some airports. I opted to pass on getting something at the Navigator this time and just sat down on a maps app looking into what I could find in Valletta and see what aircraft were due in and out of Malta Airport when I got there.

Boarding announcements were made about 06am, so I got up in the que for general boarding as I had fittingly placed myself in a seat right next to where we would be boarding from, so I stood up to give my legs a quick final stretch whilst the priority boarding passengers lined up first, I was probably the third person in que for the General Boarding, which is not something I do very often flying airlines I don't get priority for!

The Boeing 737-8AS(WL) awaiting us for this three hour flight down to Malta was EI-EMF, this aircraft was built brand new for Ryanair in April 2010 and has operated for them ever since. It is a 14 year old airframe which from late 2019 to mid 2023 wore the "Pomorskie Seaside Story" stickers on its rear fuselage.

This Ryanair Boeing 737 was kitted out in the cabin interior used on all the Boeing 737-800 delivered before early 2016 and had yet to be refitted with the newer slimline seats, so it was like stepping into Ryanair of 2010. All though Ryanair had changed the bulkheads to display "Ryanair. Low Fares. Made Simple" branding and adverts against the original yellow bulkheads with dark blue RYANAIR as would have been seen in 2010, when the plane entered service.

My seat today was in Seat 22A, so just aft of the wings, it also meant boarding from the rear door as you probably noticed by the earlier photos.

I was relieved to find that I had an entire row to myself as the person seated in the Aisle seat opted to move to join their mates when boarding was finished. The flight was probably about 60% to 75% full.

Being the first flight of the day at a small airport like Bournemouth Airport, it comes as no shocker that we were pushed back on time and departing the runway at Bournemouth very quickly. We took off from Runway 26 and I got some good views of the dawn breaking over Bournemouth and Poole as we made our initial climb out.

Our route would take us on a Northerly turn over Ringwood, flying straight East over Southampton & Portsmouth before South over Chichester after crossing the English Channel and entering French Air space over Rouen. We'd continue flying over France heading South-East passing Paris, Dijon and Lyon, we would pass the boarder of Switzerland over French airspace but giving us a good look out of the left side (where I was) of the Alps. We'd fly over Italy passing Turin and Genoa before crossing the Tyrrhenian Sea flying alongside Italy and starting our decent into Malta whilst flying over Sicily.

The crew began the Getaway Café service, this flight saw us offered the actual inflight menu. I hadn't dined in the Airport so I opted for a €10.99c Meal Deal (costing me roughly £9.50p once converted) for a Ham & Cheese panini, Lavazza coffee with milk and a Stroopwaffels cookie. It did me good for this three hour long flight.

Flying across Southern France and passing the Swiss boarder, it was amazing to see the weather being on our side as there was a beautiful view of the Franco-Swiss Alps mountain range from our 33,000ft altitude. 

After a quick visit to the toilet and buying a €3 bottle of water (ouch!) I dozed off for a good half hour before coming to as we were flying parallel to the Italian coast. We must have been within the last thirty minutes of our flight by this point and it wasn't long before the cabin crew started making some final rounds to prepare the cabin for landing as we began to descend over Sicily.

As we descended over the Mediterranean Sea, eventually as we entered finals for arrival into Malta, the view of the Island came into view. It was nice to finally see Malta again for the first time since 2008!

Despite a few light scattered clouds, it looked like it was going to be a nice day on the islands, its always a good call to get some Winter Sun when you live in a Northern European country.

We arrived into Malta Luqa Airport on Runway 31 having come into Malta from the South of the Island. We turned off about half way down the runway and began to head over to the main Terminal building, there seemed to be quite a bit of work going on around Malta Airport as I noticed a bit part of the main Apron/Taxiway was sealed off and being dug up, probably retarmacking the area.

We parked on a remote bus stand, I opted to wait for everyone to rush off and I was one of the last passengers to leave the Boeing 737-800, it allowed me to get a pretty nice photo of the Boeing 737 once I got to the bus before we pulled away for the Terminal building.

Once the short bus ride to the Terminal was complete, there was the usual passport control check which didn't take long as we appeared to be the only non-Schengen arrival at that time, so it was a quick 5-10 minute wait to be seen. Once I cleared passport control and had a quick look at a small fish tank that was there to greet arriving passengers into Malta, it was off to have a quick look at the Viewing Deck, however I wasn't going to be able to spend much time there as I wanted to priorities visiting Valletta rather than plane spotting at the terrace.

None the less, it was nice to get a final view of my Ryanair Boeing 737-800 before it departed, I even noticed the 5th Freedom flight with Emirates Boeing 777 was due in that afternoon, that would make a cool experience one day!