LTN to BFS easyJet Economy

Airline:  easyJet

Flight #: U2629

Route:    LTN-BFS

Class:    Economy

Seat:     24A

Date:     Monday 16^th December 2024

With Christmas market season well underway, and my previous trip to Düsseldorf beginning to feel like a distance memory, it was time for another trip. Beth had a spare day’s leave and with me being on my rostered week off, we decided to have a day out to visit a Christmas market that is supposedly one of the best in the UK and also visit a new city for us, Belfast. So, on a Monday in December, we had an early start to get to Luton airport, ready to catch an easyJet flight across the Irish Sea to Belfast International.

With the flight scheduled to depart at 0700, we were at Luton just after 0500 and, having paid for fast-track security, made it through to the main departure lounge about 5 minutes after walking through the front door of the terminal. We were able to find a seat at the Hawker Bar and Terrace and spent the hour or so until our gate was announced enjoying a nice breakfast and getting a caffeine fix. Despite the easyJet app suggesting there was going to be a delay to our flight, the gate was announced a few minutes ahead of schedule at 0610. Heading to gate 22, we discovered that this gate was seemingly in the bowels of Luton airport, although thankfully only a few minutes’ walk from the departure lounge.

As our flight was one of the early morning ‘first wave’ of flights departing Luton, our aircraft was already at the gate waiting, with G-EZBY doing the honours. This 17.5 year old Airbus A319 was delivered to easyJet in July 2007 and has operated with them for its entire life, with a just a short period re-registered as OE-LQH and operating for easyJet Europe. Boarding started pretty soon after we got to the gate and it was so uneventful I didn’t write any notes down about it. We were in seats 24A & 24B for the short hop across the Irish Sea, although once boarding was complete, Beth moved to 26A so she could have a window seat and a row to herself.

With boarding complete being announced by the cabin crew at 0640, I was hopeful of an early departure, however this was dashed when the captain announced we would be held due to a slot delay. Despite this announcement, we pushed back around five minutes later and started our taxi to the runway at 0653, passing the site of Luton’s infamous car park 2 which was destroyed by a car fire in 2023. Luton’s compact nature as an airport means that it doesn’t take long to taxi to either runway and so, just four minutes after beginning our taxi, we took off from runway 25 at 0657.

After take-off we initially made a left turn to head south-west, before making a 135° right turn to take us north, presumably so we were taken out over open countryside whilst at a lower altitude and avoiding the built-up areas of Luton and Dunstable. After passing to the east of Milton Keynes, we made another slight left turn to take us more north-westerly, passing between Northampton and Leicester and over Derby. As we flew over the Peak District National Park, we made another left turn to take us to the south of Manchester and out over the coast just to the north of Southport.

With a flight time of less than an hour the flight attendants did a great job of getting the inflight service done quickly and, whilst we didn’t get anything following our breakfast at Luton, there seemed to be a good choice of both food and drinks at reasonable prices. As the flight progressed, we headed straight over the Irish Sea, crossing the Isle of Man, before crossing the Northern Irish coast near Ballywater. Passing over Bangor, we then made a sweeping 90° turn around the north of Belfast, to line up for an approach to Belfast International’s runway 25.

Landing at 0752, we had been in the air for just 55 minutes and were soon making the short taxi to the main apron and terminal building. As we passed the cargo apron, it was busy with the morning arrivals of post, parcels and other cargo, with DHL, ASL, West Atlantic, Star Air and Jet2 aircraft all parked up. We arrived on stand at 0756, just four minutes after landing, and parked next to TUI’s G-FDZY which was preparing for a flight to Rovaniemi, in Finland’s Lapland region. From arriving on the stand to reaching the stop for the express bus into the city it took us around 20 minutes which isn’t bad, but isn’t great either for a domestic flight. The main issue getting through the airport was that the current building work means you need to negotiate your way around all this to get from arrivals to the bus stop.

This flight with easyJet from Luton to Belfast was short and sweet, with nothing really to note either positively or negatively. The flight was comfortable, we were on time and most importantly the crew were all friendly, so a pretty good show all around from easyJet.

Lounge              0*

Seat/Facilities     3*

Food                3*

Service             5*

Punctuality         5*

Overall Rating      16/25 (read about my rating system here!)