Airline: Ryanair
Flight #: FR8747
Route: LRH-STN
Class: Economy
Seat: 27F
Date: Thursday 28th July 2022
Having had a great couple of days exploring La Rochelle and Nantes (read about those here & here), it was time to head back to the UK, with a short 90-minute flight on Ryanair to Stansted.
La Rochelle’s airport is extremely small, with departures having six check-in desks, a combined café and shop plus a small seating area and some toilets. Check-in opened exactly two hours before departure and although I had checked in online, I had to sit around the check-in area as security had not actually opened when I arrived.
About five minutes after the check-in queue started moving, the shutters in front of the security checkpoint opened and those of us waiting joined the short queue to have our boarding cards checked (not scanned) prior to entering the two-lane security area. Whilst small, security was extremely efficient and, with the second lane opening just as I got to it, I was airside about three minutes after showing my boarding pass.
Passport control was just as small and efficient as security, with two booths quickly dealing with everyone and meant just another couple of minutes had passed before I was through and into the non-Schengen gate area. La Rochelle has two gates for Schengen flights and two for non-Schengen, with a fifth gate being able to be swapped depending on the demand at the time.
The only issue with such an efficient airport was I was settled in the departure lounge with almost two hours until the flight, before the inbound flight had even left Stansted! Unfortunately, the duty-free shop was closed and the only other facilities were toilets, a coffee machine and a vending machine, so there wasn’t much to occupy the wait. Whilst I’d always recommend getting to the airport with plenty of time for your flight, I would suggest that if you only have hand luggage and have checked in online, then you can probably push arriving at La Rochelle airport to an hour before departure.
In true Ryanair style, we began ‘boarding’ before our aircraft had even landed, with it passing over Nantes about the time we started. Thankfully the weather was good as, although the priority boarding passengers queued inside, those of us without had our boarding passes scanned and exited out of another gate to what can best be described as a holding pen. After ten minutes or so of working on my tan, the inbound flight arrived with EI-EXF doing the honours.
A 9-year-old Boeing 737-800, EI-EXF had the old style ‘chunky’ cabin, meaning once again the much-desired bit of extra space provided by the ‘slimline’ cabin was missing. Despite my hopefully thoughts of this being the ‘off-peak’ direction, the flight was full and so it was a bit of a squish against the window, but for a 90-minute flight was do-able.
Departing to the west, our departure took us on a right turn immediately after take-off, with the Île de Ré to our left, with a couple of extra turns to allow us to head north. We reached our cruising altitude of 34,000ft close to the town of La Roche-sur-Yon that I had passed through on my train journeys to and from Nantes (read about those here and here) with us soon passing to the east of Nantes and Rennes.
As with the flight out (and I assume all Ryanair flights), the magazine is an e-zine accessed via a QR code on the back of the seats, with this including what was on sale in terms of food and duty free. Although I was full from my excellent lunch, I did have a look at what was on offer and to be honest I was a bit underwhelmed. There was an ok selection, however it wasn’t as wide ranging as my recent flights onboard Wizz.
We passed over the French coast between the Utah and Omaha D-Day beaches and not long after this began our decent toward the English coast and eventually Stansted. The crew had once again come through the aircraft with the duty free selection and I’ve got to say that once again Ryanair’s crews seem friendlier with this crew coming across professional, helpful and friendly as opposed to just the former.
We crossed the English coast above Bognor Regis and turned to head slightly more north-west, passing over Guildford and the West London suburbs of Kingston and Ealing. Flying over Hertford marked the start of our final decent with us passing through 10,000ft and starting a rather zig-zag approach into Stansted, landing on the north-westerly runway 04.
All in all this flight with Ryanair was fine for what it was. When flying with the low cost carriers, you’ve got to remember that they are low-cost and so you’re not going to get any frills unless you pay extra. When an extra legroom seat one-way would have been almost as much as my return flights, it doesn’t really seem worth it, especially for 90-minutes. Personally, for flights under two hours, I try to keep it pure low-cost, and above that start weighing up the cost of the extras.
Lounge 0*
Seat/Facilities 3*
Food 2*
Service 5*
Punctuality 5*
Overall Rating 15/25 (read about my rating system here!)
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