Trip Report & Spotting in BCN/DUB

[Joe Frampton]

Hi all,
Some of you might still know me from the early spotter weekends at Sydney Airport. I moved across to Ireland (from Brisbane) in 2006 with my wife (I still remember speaking to the late, great David Carey who told me to "go for it")... so we did and my wife and I live in a small seaside village about an hour north of Dublin. Anyway, on with the spotting! Here's a report from a recent day trip to London (we fly FAR too much over here), and a few photos.
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05 Apr 08 - Ryanair FR114 - DUB/LGW - 1140/1255 - JD7D2R - Aircraft: EI-DCB, 737-8AS - Top flight level: 31,000 - flight time (predicted) about 1 hour; flight time (actual) about 1 hour 35 mins.
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This quick hop to London was originally scheduled from Gate D80 - the absolutely furthest gate down the end of the new D Gate area at Dublin Airport. Ryanair had seemingly dominated the use of the D Gates since they were opened in late 2007, but it was interesting to see an Aer Lingus A330 for Boston loading up there this morning. So everyone queued up at D80, more people in the "priority" queue (internet check-in) than the normal queue as is often the case nowadays. Then they changed the Gate to D74, so the rhinoceros herd stampeded across to D74, even though there was no plane on the tarmac! The inbound flight was late (at D74 around 1140), but the turnaround was good and we were moving again approx. 1215. Small queue for take-off, out on Runway 28 towards the west. A series of right turns lined us up over the Irish Sea direct to Holyhead, North Wales, where we took right turns again, over Wales and the Midlands, ending up west of London. We had reached 31,000 for a short time before descent. So with London to our east, we swung around towards the South-East coast of England (past Brighton), into a Gatwick holding pattern for about 15 mins - quite normal for an early Saturday afternoon at one of the busiest single runway airports in the world. So after coming out of the holding pattern, and with an endless series of left turns (as normal), we lined up for Runway 26L. Down, down, terminal buildings well in sight (we must have been damn close to the threshold), almost on the ground... then sharp pull-up and left turn away from the runway. A few astonished faces in the cabin of course, but I'd been through this before. This was my second go-around in the UK (first was at Heathrow in March 07). This time, in much better weather, the pilot came on the intercom quite quickly and told us the aircraft ahead had not exited the runway. So, another series of left turns took us south of the airport, out to the east again, and back into the landing pattern for 26L. After a long, gentle landing using much of the runway, we were at the Gate around 1405. I was on the Gatwick Express to Victoria at 1420.
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05 Apr 08 - Ryanair FR119 - LGW/DUB - 2115/2235 - JD7D2R - Aircraft: EI-DYE, 737-8AS - Top flight level: 26,000 - flight time (predicted) about 1 hour; flight time (actual) about 1 hour 5 mins.
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Ryanair have 2 late evening flights from Gatwick back to Dublin - at 2045 & 2115. Generally very low priced flights, full of Dublin day trippers on the weekends and firmly aimed at crushing Aer Lingus from the Gatwick market. Travellers over here complain about Gatwick big time, but it's my favourite of Ryanair's London Airports (Gatwick, Luton & Stansted) and has the best train connections. Any of these airports can easily beat the potential misery of Heathrow too - really best avoided unless you have to catch a flight to Australia, etc! The aircraft on this run, EI-DYE was brand new (del. 18-03-08) and was here way early, although I have absolutely no idea why they bussed us across the tarmac from Gate 10 to Gate 12? Weird. Good atmosphere on board and left ahead of schedule. The runway directions had changed from earlier in the day, and we taxied out to the end of Runway 08R, taking off towards the east, taking left turns with London below us, but clouded out. We tracked northwest of London, over Bristol, then South Wales, then out over the Irish Sea before doing a little circling, then lining up for 26L (same as earlier). We landed slightly ahead of schedule. Came into the end of the D Gates for the long, long walk back to passport control and the exit, and my car in the long term... back home to bed!
Next flights: Italy on 25-27 April.
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Total Ticket Cost: Ryanair DUB/LGW/DUB - €23.02 (about AUD 38.99); Total Ticket Cost: Gatwick Express LGW/Victoria/LGW - £17.10 (about AUD 36.58)
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Some photos from my flickr site:

Ryanair Trip (sorry, these were taken with my phone camera). All sizes at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/2627902...7604635231282/


(1) Just another night on Ryanair!
(2) Practical seatback safety, firmly glued down on Ryanair!
(3) There were at least 5 or 6 Ryanair 737's lined together up at the end of Terminal D when we came to a stop.
(4) The "long walk"... No, this isn't a communist country! Welcome to the new Dublin Airport "D" Gates... They could at least do with some advertising on the walls!

Spotting at Barcelona on 17 Mar 08. 6 of my 13 shots below (loads of Airbus), all sizes at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/2627902...7604625630780/
Also... Spotting at Dublin on 09 Mar 08. 10 shots, all sizes at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/2627902...7604622070927/

Bye for now, Joe.

[Justin L]

I enjoyed your report. It's good to hear about experiences at airports and on airlines that many of us here in Australia wouldn't have the opportunity to utilise all that often. Great pics too.

[phil.l]

Nice report Joe,had a flight with Ryanair LTN-DUB-LTN on 5 feb this year.all was good,but one thing that i found interesting was you could purchase train tickets on board Ryanair ,a lot cheaper to,was that offered to you on landing at Gatwick?

[Joe Frampton]

Originally Posted by phil.l

Nice report Joe,had a flight with Ryanair LTN-DUB-LTN on 5 feb this year.all was good,but one thing that i found interesting was you could purchase train tickets on board Ryanair ,a lot cheaper to,was that offered to you on landing at Gatwick?

Ryanair flog a few things onboard... firstly the food & drink, then scratch cards, then coach tickets at places like Luton & Stansted (and other European cities) - for a mob called "Terravision"... I only bought them once - then discovered that the price direct from Terravision was £1 less than the Ryanair price... I think they also sell Stansted Express train tickets... but don't think they sell Gatwick tickets as far as I know. They never seem to flog them on the flights from Dublin to Gatwick... As another matter of interest there - Gatwick has competing train services, like most places in the UK now: "Southern Express" trains (to Victoria, Brighton, etc.), "First Capital Connect" trains (to London Bridge, St Pancras, Luton) and of course the Gatwick Express. The tickets on Southern Express are usually the cheapest into Central London...

[Will T]

Nice report, Joe!