Flight Report : FR 3256
London Luton - Nīmes, France

Late Morning Flight

  • 7 Oct 2008 - Depart 1120
  • Fare 1 GBP + fees = 5 GBP
  • Having returned from Spain the night before, I didn't want to rush to a far-away airport and catch an early morning flight to France. I opted for a later departure, near lunch time, and leisurely made my way to London Victoria for the bus to Luton after a decent night's rest. I have quite a good impression of Luton, being a less busy, more orderly airport. I didn't have to worry about getting to the bus stop at 5am so I will miss my 7am flight at chaotic Stansted.

    Check-in was fairly fast with a few people in line. I did web check-in beforehand, but since I didn't have a European passport, I thought I'd double-check whether it was OK to do so. Well, apparently it was not OK, so I was issued a manual boarding pass, but didn't have to pay the check-in fee.

    Luton enforces the one bag per passenger rule quite strictly. There was one person at the entrance to the security check area stopping people who had more than one bag. He seemed happy to bring misery to surprised passengers, and I had to stuff my backpack into my handcarry to get past, and I could not even zip up everything properly because it was so full. It didn't matter so much, as I was back to my backpack and hand carry configuration once I got past the X-rays.

    Timely Boarding

    Boarding was more or less timely. It was a long walk from the immigration area, and then downstairs to tarmac-level for the gate. As usual, I like to board at the back stairs so I can get a neat photo like this :

    2 Hours

    The flight was fairly full, and with no entertainment, I had to put up with reading the safety card over and over again. I guess that is a good thing.

    Landing

    The weather was so-so during the descent, with pockets of sunshine amidst some clouds. There were a few bumps along the way but this certainly wasn't a harrowing landing as some of my other Ryanair flights.

    Welcome to Nīmes

    Immigration took a bit of time as the French agent was quite slow manually typing in the passport details into the computer. Luckily this airport was very quiet and we were the sole arrival at the time. No matter ... the bus to the city was patiently waiting for all passengers to clear out before leaving. It was a quick 20 minute ride into the centre of town, which was a refreshing change from the very long commutes to Luton or Stansted. It's a bit hard to believe I only paid 5 pounds for this flight.

    To re-use these photos, please notify me by email : asiaglobe@yahoo.com.hk.

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