Review of Ryanair flight Aalborg → London in Economy

Finding a lost Flight!

Back in 2017 I did a trip to Aalborg, Denmark with Ryanair which only cost me £21 return, paying for a £1 outbound flight and back on a flight that only came to £20. A good deal to find an "off the beaten path" destination in Denmark!

A few years later, I lost a load of flight pictures from 2014-2018 when my hard drive crashed. Luckily a lot of my photos were posted online on social media and this website, but one trip that I did loose the flight photos was the two flights between London Stansted & Aalborg until recently.

Organising a load of photos around, I thought I'd dive into Facebook again and with a bit of searching, I dug up a series of photos from the Aalborg Ryanair flights, which I thought were forever lost, so I looked at what surviving photos I had from the Airport (those photos didn't get lost in the crash) as well as phone pictures and my recently uncovered GoPro photos of the Aalborg to London STN flight, so here it is and a chance to showcase an "unusual airport" for the site!

Whilst I did do a traditional flight review video (it is posted on here), the flight was almost 7 years ago, so some of the information might be scarce compare to the more recent flight reporting I've done.

Back to 2017: Ryanair FR1252 (AAL-STN)

Aalborg Airport is located in the Danish North Jutland region, its not a big airport, but it gets regular flights from Ryanair, Norwegian, SAS and KLM. I was able to get here quite easily from the city centre by bus, I arrived a little earlier to do some plane spotting and explore the small airport.

Flying Ryanair I was already checked in with my online boarding pass and carrying solely hand baggage, I didn't require a check in facility and went straight for airside. I don't recall how long the security lane was as it was quite a while ago.

Its a small airport as I said, but I was surprised to see signs for an Airport Lounge- which I assume is for SAS & KLM passengers as well as an up sale for the Airport. There were some small cafes, outlets and a Duty Free store. I found the glass frame with the flowing water graphic being an interesting decoration.

In terms of other aircraft movements on that particular day, there was a KLM Cityhopper ERJ-195 parked up after a cancelled service due out at 06am that morning, likely due to a technical fault. However a fellow Embraer ERJ-175 came in from Amsterdam, so hopefully this was going to be a quiet enough flight in order to sort out those unfortunate passengers from the earlier flight.

Two domestic flights arrived in the form of a Danish Air Transport ATR 72 and SAS Scandinavian Airlines Airbus A320. Not sure where the ATR came in from, but I think the SAS A320 came in from Copenhagen Airport, so likely a domestic shuttle for people in the Aalborg region connecting onto further afield via Copenhagen to rival the KLM Amsterdam service.

British Airways was kind of present via a service operated by Sun-Air Scandinavia Jetstream 32 (OY-SVF), a pretty rare find and I'm not entirely sure what route it was doing. It could have been a charter for a local business operation, I really couldn't say. What I do know from research is that this Jetstream was withdrawn from service in March 2018 and scrapped during October 2019.

Norwegian Air Shuttle was there as well, at the time I believe Norwegian operated Aalborg to London Gatwick and Copenhagen. Currently in 2024 Norwegian doesn't operate to London Gatwick from Aalborg, but they still do Copenhagen as well as various "bucket and spade" holiday flights to Spain, Portugal and the Canary Islands.

Eventually our aircraft turned up and it was in the form of Ryanair Boeing 737-800 EI-DPF, this aircraft was delivered brand new to Ryanair in January 2007, making it 10 years old at the time of flying it. As of April 2024 its still in service with Ryanair at the age of 17 years old, though it has now been fitted with Split Scimitar winglet devices.

Gate 6 is one of the Gates beyond passport control for flights departing Aalborg and the Schengen Area, so we were checked out by the Danish immigration officers. Boarding was due to begin for an on time departure at "high noon" 12pm local time.

Boarding was the usual deal with Ryanair, an open board, luckily it was a nice enough day to do it. Quite a few clouds about, but a calm day with breaks in the clouds regardless. Boarding from the rear of the aircraft gave me a good opportunity to snap the tail fin up close as well as one last snap of the rare British Airways/Sun Air Scandinavia Jetstream 32!

I was seated towards the rear of the aircraft with Seat 28F being my seat for the ride back to London STN. Whilst I didn't have any surviving pictures of the cabin on this flight aside from this snap of the seat back with the usual Ryanair safety card and advert for the Getaway Café, it was the older cabin design, which I represent from another Ryanair flight I took in 2017.

We took off from Aalborg and travelled across the North Sea for Essex, England. It was a pretty uneventful flight from "A to B" which is what you want from Ryanair, I did find some of these inflight photos from my recovery as well as from a separate folder of mobile phone snaps.

If you want to see more of the Aalborg to London flight as it happened, don't hesitate to enjoy the Flight Review video linked into the article above to see more.

I did enjoy a snack on this flight as I had a long public transport journey to get me back to my then hometown of Burnham (Berkshire) from London Stansted, I opted to simply have a cup of Hot Chocolate with a Kinder Bueno chocolate bar.

We arrived into London Stansted on time and taxied over to our parking stand, during the taxi I saw some interesting delights as we made our way across the Airport including a FedEx Airbus A300-600F (not a regular site in Europe these days) and the then newly painted "Borusa Dortmund FC" Eurowings Airbus A320 (back when they used to serve London STN). 

If you want to visit Aalborg, Ryanair still offer direct flights there from London Stansted. If you fly during the Summer Season of 2024 you can fly to Aalborg on Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday with £15 one-way showing as the cheapest fare at the time of writing.

Disembarking the aircraft was the usual, getting off with an open disembarkation as well as the route march across London Stansted to the UK boarder area. I was through and then I had to get myself home to Burnham by train due to a change of plans at the last minute.

I got a train ticket for £21 which was a one-way ticket from London Stansted to Burnham train station and it was a long three hours as I had to get from London Stansted to Liverpool Street with the Stansted Express, then get the Underground over to London Paddington station before grabbing a First Great Western train from London Paddington to Reading which stops at Burnham train station on the way… I am glad I was doing this in the middle of the day and not late at night or during the rush hour!

Bonus : Click here display hide

Sights and Attractions in Aalborg, Denmark

One highlight is this really nice restaurant, a former Dutch ship retired by the Netherlands was shipped over to Aalborg where it has been turned into a restaurant and bar, it does good French & Danish food and its a unique dining experience.

A Viking Cruise Ship docked in Aalborg whilst I was there, my assumption is that it was going around Denmark dropping off at various cities as part of a cruise package holiday, I'm not sure if this is a regular thing in Aalborg, but it was amazing to see this big Norwegian beast up close and personal!

The Military and Garrison Museum is well worth a visit, it showcases the history of Denmark's military from WW2 through to the Present day as well as covering the life of the Aalborg city during German occupation in WW2. A few vintage tanks, armaments and aircraft are on display through the museum.

A short distance from the Garrison Museum is another Aalborg Museum, which you can get entry for both together at a discounted price and that is the Maritime Museum, which is itself has its fair share of gems on the naval history of Denmark.

One of my favourite bits of the Aalborg Maritime Museum was the chance to access a former Danish Navy & NATO Submarine, which was a really amazing experience. Four of these Delfinen-Class submarines were built for the Danish Navy in the aftermath of WW2, and operated during most of the Cold War, three of the submarines were scrapped, but this one named "Springeren" was handed over as a museum ship.

Overall its a lovely little city to visit, Aalborg, so I do recommend it if you fancy going to Scandinavia, but also don't want to visit the major capital cities.