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.

Having had a busy 24 hours in Ireland, it was time to head home and rather than catch a ‘boring’ Airbus or Boeing back across the Irish Sea, I’d timed my return to England to fly onboard one of the two daily Aer Lingus Regional flights from Dublin to Birmingham. Operated by Aer Lingus’ regional partner, Emerald Airlines, these flights use one of the airline’s 18 ATR 72-600s, offering something a bit different to the usual narrowbody jets that operate between Ireland and the UK. I have flown on one of these Aer Lingus Regional flights previously, back when they were operated by Stobart Air, but it had been a few years, so this was a good opportunity to try the ATR out again.

Back in September I had decided to attend a railway related event to aid in my professional development, something I do fairly regularly, however on this occasion it required a bit more travel than jumping on a train to London or Birmingham as the talk was being held in Cork. Deciding to make the most of the trip to Ireland, I planned to spend some time exploring Cork and the surrounding area, as well as trying out Iarnród Éireann before flying back from Dublin. Before all that though, I had to get to Cork and so Thursday 12th September saw me waking up at a Heathrow hotel ready to fly across the Irish Sea.

Just under 48 hours after arriving in Finland, and after two great days exploring Tampere and Helsinki as well as trying out the Finnish rail network, it was time to head back to the UK and reality. I still had one more adventure ahead of me though, another flight with Finnair in Business Class, this time onboard one of their more usual Airbus A321s.

Having had a mostly enjoyable day exploring the Irish capital, it was time to head back across the Irish Sea to Birmingham and, as with the flight out, we were flying with the Irish flag carrier, Aer Lingus. We’d be flying from Dublin’s newer terminal, Terminal 2, which is home to Aer Lingus, its IAG Group partners, Emirates and the contingent of US Airlines that serve Dublin.