188 Edinburgh-Nîmes (Ryanair); After so many early morning, weekend flights this year, it was a pleasure to be heading to the airport late on a Wednesday afternoon for a 5.05pm departure. As expected, the terminal was relatively quiet, (about as quiet as Edinburgh gets just now anyway). Despite all the free time and the rare availability of pub seats I was content to just sit in a quiet corner and wait patiently to find out which gate I would be boarding from. This wait was a little longer than I would have liked, with it finally being announced five minutes before the gate supposedly closed. This made it even more surprising that once boarded, we stood outside for around twenty minutes, waiting to get onto the aircraft. I now realise that paying extra for priority boarding usually means a unique opportunity to stand in the cold longer than any other passengers. Once we were finally allowed onto the aircraft, the cabin was only 20-25% occupied. This meant boarding was completed almost as soon as I had sat down, as well as the holy grail of an empty row beside me, (as expected when flying on a Wednesday afternoon). Hopefully the fact that there were only thirty or so people on board would help make up some of the growing delay en route.
The two hour flight was pleasant enough, and I treated myself to one of the green curry’s, (which is probably about as good an onboard meal as I’ve had on a budget carrier). The only concern was the delay of around half an hour. Knowing what a small airport FNI was, I was aware that there was only one dedicated bus service that met each of the dozen or so flights that arrived each week; would it wait if the flight was delayed? Of course it did, but there was no way of knowing that en route. As it turned out, the flight arrived just before the bus’ scheduled departure time, and thanks to the size of the terminal building I was deplaned, through the tiny border post and out of the terminal five minutes before it was due to leave.
189 Nîmes-Edinburgh (Ryanair); another late afternoon departure, which ended up being an early evening one. As the scheduled bus pulled into FNI, some of the passengers noted a Ryanair aircraft landing, which set off a mild panicked scramble to get off the bus, through security and onto the aircraft. For those of us using Flight Radar, this aircraft was obviously the scheduled arrival from Charleroi, not Edinburgh. In fact, our aircraft was currently over Livingston, having just taken off in the last few minutes. With a flight time of just over two hours, there was clearly going to be quite a delay. Assuming that the options for food, drink and entertainment after security at such a small airport would be very limited, as well as the fact that security itself was hardly going to be a lengthy trial with only one flight leaving, I decided to linger landside for a while. The day was warm and sunny, and the tiny terminal building did at least have one small shop, where I purchased a glass of beer and sat out in the fresh air, waiting until the aircraft was at least in French airspace before even thinking about moving. When I finally did decide to go through security, the process of the searches and crossing the border took less than a minute combined. The vast majority of my fellow pax had already done so and I was probably the last to pass through.
As predicted, the facilities once airside were extremely basic. Two large waiting rooms with hard wooden benches, a few vending machines and a toilet. And of course a screaming child. There also seemed to be a distinct lack of information being communicated, as those pax without Flight Radar sat anxiously watching the departure time come and go on the screens at the desk, with no aircraft in sight. Finally an announcement was made that the flight was delayed, and would leave approximately an hour behind schedule. Looking at where the aircraft currently was on the map I thought that was optimistic, and so it turned out, with it finally arriving over an hour late.
Still, once we were boarded it was apparent that this would be another quiet flight. And with the recent decline in air travel since Covid, flying regularly on these half-empty aircraft has allowed me to develop a new pet hate: people who ignore weight and balance warnings and wander around the aircraft at will. So I was understandably annoyed when a middle-aged woman abruptly plonked herself at the end of my empty row just before take-off, especially given her apparent weight. Completely ignorant to the safety of all onboard and interested only in her own comfort, I treated her to my most disdainful look of disgust. This successfully frightened her into sitting somewhere else after takeoff, although we could well have been dead by then, (though I like to think my corpse would still have been casting hers a filthy look).
The flight was routine and pleasant enough though, and we even managed to make up a little time en route. And despite being a Monday evening, EDI was fairly quiet on arrival, so much so that there was no queue to speak of at the border. I did have a slightly anxious moment when passing through the e-gates, as this was the first time I had crossed the border since working for the UK Border Force at LHR. What if I got rejected, how embarrassing would it be to have to go and get my passport manually scanned by one of my colleagues. All was well though.
Gill 9A 