Ryanair - FR8272
Bristol International Airport, England to Porto Francisco de Sá Carneiro Airport, Portugal
Aircraft: Boeing 737-8AS
Registration: EI-DCK
Configuration: 189Y
Seat: 1A
Flight Time: 2h 05m
Distance: 755 miles
Departure TIme: 06:20
Arrival Time: 08:25
Flight Load: ~70%
Background
This trip report will cover two legs of Ryanair flights from Bristol to Porto and return. The purpose of this trip was to spend a few days in Porto and to head into Northwest Spain, where I live some of the year. I chose to fly on Ryanair from Bristol mainly due to the price. The TAP Portugal flights from London (Gatwick & Heathrow) were much more pricey, although I will be flying TAP next time.
The flights cost me £110GBP return including taxes, so all in all...not that expensive. (TAP was £215GPB return from London-Gatwick)
The flight was leaving at a rather early 6:20AM so I made my way down to the airport in the early hours and parked near to the airport. The airport bus then shortly took us to the terminal . The terminal was rather empty at this hour in the morning, with only a few flights to leave at around the 6AM slot.
Today at Bristol the weather was awful. There was thick fog everywhere and some of the flights were delayed due to the weather. I was hopeful that things would clear up on the drive to the airport, but no luck.
For those of you who are not familiar with Bristol Airport; it is located roughly 8 miles South of Bristol. Easyjet and Ryanair are the largest scheduled carriers at the airport. Other major scheduled carriers include Air France, Continental Airlines, Brussels Airlines, KLM Cityhopper and Lufthansa (Eurowings).
Bristol has a single runway which 6,598ft long, which limits to the 767 being the largest operator at the airport.
Outside Bristol Terminal with thick fog
Check-in area
We had already checked in online, which meant that we had our boarding passes and could automatically make our way through to the departure area, via Immigration. Immigration was slow considering there wasn't alot of passengers in the terminal at this hour. We were soon in the departure area. There isn't alot to do in Bristol airport as it is quite small, however ample for short flights which the airport mainly caters for. I was suprised to see that all of the shops were open at these early hours. I decided to get myself some food from Burger King; as Ryanair is a LCC of course, which means Buy on Board.
Inside the terminal
There were a few flights to leave before ours, including some EasyJet flights. Our flight was later announced as Delayed due to the fog. I don't quite understand how EasyJet were operating their flights as normal, yet Ryanair had delays. The Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt was cancelled, along with the KLM flight to Amsterdam. Other flights were also delayed.
Soon enough our flight was announced as ready for boarding. When you check-in online ,you also receive priority boarding which is handy. I jumped to the start of the long line and managed to hop onto the aircraft first. There are no aerobridges at Bristol, so you either have to be bused or have to walk to the aircraft. On this occasion we walked, which I assume all Ryanair flights use this method. The airaft was covered in thick fog, which meant it was very hard to take photos of the aircraft. You couldn't see the terminal from the aicraft; and for those of you who know Bristol, the aircraft is parked right in front of the terminal building.
We boarded through the front nearside door, the rear door was also being used for boarding. As I was the first on the aircraft, I decided to sit in seat 1A, which featured lots of legroom due to the door + the comfort of a normal window.
Climing the stairs of the 737
Enginge View
View from seat 1A
Crew seating, with a member of cabin crew making an announcement
Departure
Sat in seat 1A, I noticed that none of the cabin crew were English. The crew consisted of a few Eastern European crew and Portugese. The captain soon announced there would be another delay due to the fog, but we were to head of soon. The announcements from the captain seemed to be extremely quiet compared to the cabin crew.
We were soon pushed back and the crew acted out the safety demonstation for passengers. This was done in two seperate areas of the cabin; at the front and by the middle emmergency exits. Demonstration was done in Portuguese and English.
We made the short taxi to the runway and lined up behind an Easyjet Airbus A319.
Thick cloud on climb-out
Sunrise over South West England
Crusing South across the English Channel, North of Brest (France)
The cabin crew did bring round a duty free selection for passengers to buy on board. There was options for food and drink to be brought on board.
Arrival
The captain announced that we would be making our decent in Porto. We would be flying strait into Porto Airport. Francisco de Sá Carneiro Airport is located 6 miles North West of Porto and is located in the Maia area. Francisco de Sá Carneiro Airport is Portugal's third busiest airport after Lisbon and Faro. The major carrier is TAP Portugal (including Portugália), Ryanair is the second largest carrier.
The captain announced that crew had to be seated, which did seem like along way from airport. We maintained a low altitude for around 10 minutes before eventualy coming to a stop on the runway at Porto. Welcome to Portugal...
Landing Video
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gQvCmkyZ3Tc&feature=channel_page
DHL Boeing 757-200F
The temperature was very warm for this time of the morning and there was clear blue skies. A perfect way to start to my trip! Woo
Air Notsrum (Iberia) CRJ-200
PGA Embraer
Parked next to a PGA ERJ-145
Crew preparing for the return in the cockpit
View of EI-DCK
The airport was reasonable quiet at this time of hour. There was an A330 which had arrived from Sao Paulo I beleive. There was also due to be a Air Transat flight from Toronto, but this was delayed.
Entrance to the terminal. TAP Portugal A32S, Portugalia Fokker 100 and TAP Portugal A330-200 in the Star Alliance colours.
We parked near to the terminal, which seemed to be the Low Cost Area of the airport. There was another Ryanair 737 aircraft here at this time. We made the short walk to the terminal which looked stunning and modern. There were already passengers lining up to board the aircraft to go back to Bristol at this time. As we entered the terminal, we were automaticaly greeted by Immigration staff urging us to get into lines for passport checks. The checks were done very quickly. I received a miserable guy, however my girlfriend had a much nicer Portugese woman.
Porto
As we had no bags other than hand baggaige, we simply just made our way to the bus stops at the entrance of the terminal. A sudden last minute change to the Metro Train was a great idea and we made our way into Porto on the Metro instead. (I later used the bus on another trip to Porto; and the train is much, much easier). The Metro is very clean and efficent to use. However we did have troubles with the ticket machines as none seemed to work. After much hassle, a Brazilian couple helped us purchase our tickets as they spoke Portugese and English. We boarded the train and headed to the centre. Unfortiantley we had purchased the wrong tickets to which we were later hassled by the train guard to which he gave us a "warning" not to do this again. I then had to pay for another ticket and was threatened with a fine if I did it again. "Calm down man, it was an accident!"
Metro Station
We arrived in the centre and walked to our hotel, which was the Sheraton Porto. It was located in Boavista and right near to the Boavista Football Ground, Estádio do Bessa. Boavista is the second major team in Porto after FC Porto. Famous players who have played for the club include Peit (now at FC Köln), Bosingwa (now at Chelsea), Raul Meireles (now at FC Porto), Ricardo (now at Real Betis), Nuno Gomes (now at Benfica), Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (now retired) and Hussain Yasser (now Al-Ahly).
A few photo's of Porto...
Estádio do Bessa
Estádio do Dragão, I picked myself up a shirt from the shop.
Looking across Eastern Porto
Our Hotel..The Sheraton Porto.. I can reccomend this hotel very highly.
We had a Club Room for the night which included free access to the roof top terrace with free drinks/nibbles and breakfast. Was excellent.
We also headed into North-West Spain, I will post this in a later trip report.
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Ryanair - FR8273
Porto Francisco de Sá Carneiro Airport, Portugal to Bristol International Airport, England
Aircraft: Boeing 737-8AS
Registration: EI-DCK
Configuration: 189Y
Seat: 23A
Flight Time: 2h 05m
Distance: 755 miles
Departure Time: 08:50
Arrival Time: 11:05
Flight Load: 100%
Background
We left the house in Spain at around 4:30AM to make the flight in Porto. The flight was leaving at 8:50AM back to the United Kingdom. Little did I know, the flight would be completely packed today.
We arrived at the terminal and was dropped of by some friends. The terminal wasn't very busy at this time of day. But in any case, Porto isn't ever really that busy..which is a real shame for such a beautiful airport.
Blurry early morning image of a TAP Portugal A330-200
A Maserati on show in the terminal
Huge FIDS board
Huge terminal area
Today's flights
Luxair 737-700 at the terminal. DHL 757-200F in the background.
One of the Ryanair 737-800s taxiing in
Gorgeous looking 73G
Three European 737s. Ryanair, Luxair and Transavia.com
TAP A319 arriving from Lisbon
Pushing back to Luxembourg
Iberia CRJ-200
Bye bye..
There wasn't much activity happening at the airport, as you can see in these photos.
However there was a huge influx of Rangers fans as they had just played Sporting Lisbon in Lisbon. I guess many passengers flew into Porto and then drove down to Lisbon.
Spacious terminal building.
Soon enough It was announced that our flight was ready for boarding to Bristol. We made our way downstairs into the "Low Cost Carriers Area" and passed immigration before heading to the aircraft.
We again had priority boarding which meant we could board the aircraft before other passengers. We boarded this time through the rear of the aicraft and took a seat mid way down the cabin. Soon enough it was ready to depart.
An TAP A319 passing by
Air Notsrum CRJ which had earlier arrived
One of the Ryanair 737s
Boarding the 737
Ryanair 737-800 in the older colours
EI-CSM
Departure
The captain announced that we would be now taxiing for takeoff. No pushback was required as we simply just made a 180 Degree turn and headed to the runway. Again the cabin safety demonstation was done in Portuguese and English.
Passing the terminal
Passing a TAP A319
CS-TOF being loaded for Caracas
The newer GE powered CS-TON
PGA Fokker 100
Take-off video
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WMrgl98N8wg&feature=channel_page
We made a rolling start onto the runway before heading off towards the North.
Portuguese countryside
Anyone know where this is?
The powerplant on this Boeing 737-800
Overflying clear blue seas
The flight was pretty uneventful which not alot going on, most people were sleeping.
Flying over the French Coast.
Arrival
Decending into Bristol
Good ole' wet England
Titan Airways BAE-146... G-ZAPR
Continental Airlines 757-200 between two Ryanair 737-800s
N57111, I have flown this aircraft to SFO in the past
Bristol Terminal
The CO 757 is preparing for departure back to Newark.
We entered the terminal and headed towards the exit and back home.
Verdict
Ryanair is cheap, but you get what you pay for. The airline was fine if you want to use it as a bus service. However if you want anything more than that then fly a premium carrier such as TAP Portugal. I've now flown Ryanair to Porto five times, each one has been similar. I will be flying TAP next time, so will be able to compare. But will happily return to Ryanair for these short trips to Portugal.
Porto is a lovely city, I would reccomend it to all. Just make sure where you stay. I have stayed at the Eurostars Hotel, which I found to be in a very bad location, which was un-safe at night. The Sheraton is a perfect hotel with a nice surrounding area, however not in the centre of Porto.
Porto Airport is a lovely airport, just wish Lisbon was a bit more like it. In return I also wish that Porto was as busy as Lisbon. However I guess we can not all win. I would happily return to Porto and I see it as an Ideal connectining airport for those not wishing to fly via Lisbon from South America and New York.
http://www.visitportugal.com/Cultures/en-US/default.html
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