MAN-PFO-MAN with BY/SCY

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Member for

20 years 1 month

Posts: 1,098

This was my first visit to Cyprus in 4 years since a nightmare occured with our travel arrangements with CY. We booked with BY this time.

MAN-PFO- BY419A- 12/04/03
Aircraft: G-TTMC
Scheduled Time of Departure: 09:45
Actual Time of Departure: 10:17
Scheduled Time of Arrival: 16:25
Actual Time of Arrival: 16:39
As I mentioned above, this was my first visit to Cyprus since a nightmare with Cyprus Airways. So, we left the house at 06:00 for a 07:00 check-in for our Britannia flight. We got to MAN just after 07:15 and went to check-in where there was 4 desks open for our flight. We soon checked-in for our flight only to discover that our plane had gone tech (G-OBYH) and that our flight had been handed over to.... Air Scandic. I thought this was going to be a disaster story and that we wouldn't make it to Cyprus!! :( I had already heard bad things about this company so I wasn't particularly happy. We accepted that we wouldn't be able to change our aircraft to a Britannia aircraft. We went through to departures and found seats at Gate 212, by the window. I saw both SCY A300s waiting for passengers so I was left wondering which one we were on, SWJW or TTMC?? We were called for boarding at Gate 300 which was downstairs so we made our way down to the buses. We got on and the bus took us out to the apron which at first started heading for SWJW but got told that it was the wrong aircraft and we were on the far one (G-TTMC)!! We eventually arrived at our aircraft, next to our tech 767 we were SUPPOSED to be on!! However, we were slightly delayed as my sister needed to find out her 11+ result, whether she had passed, or failed. She had passed!! :mad: We went up the steps fearing the worst for the flight and were greeted by 2 stewardesses. They guided us to our seats in the centre of the aircraft. They closed the door and the Finnish captain came on the speaker and told us about the flight, in very broken English, he explained that our aircraft we were supposed to go on was next to us and it was broken!! We pushed back from our remote stand, and the crew did a manual safety demo. They did a final seatbelt check prior to take-off and took their seats as we got followed by a BY 763 going to Orlando Sanford. We lined up on the runway and the engines roared into life and we shot down the runway like a rocket before lifting off. It took 30 minutes to reach our cruising height of 28,000 feet!! The crew immediately came round with Britannia headsets on a Finnair trolley with there being Caledonian titles on the tables in front of us!! They then came round with a bar and then the meal of bangers and mash. This was surprisingly good for charter food!! We had Air Scandic duty free which I didn't want, particularly since the postcards cost £8 each!! :eek: We shortly commenced our descent into Paphos which seemed to take an absolute age before lining up for a landing towards the sea. We touched down with a bump before applying the most horrendously noisy reverse thrust :) . The locals must have thought a sudden storm had descended upon them!! We taxied back and disembarked for a week in the sun!!

PFO-MAN -BY419B- 19/04/03
Aircraft: G-TTMC
Scheduled Time of Departure:16:25
Actual Time of Departure:16:56
Scheduled Time of Arrival: 20:30
Actual Time of Arrival: 20:23
This was my return flight back to Manchester, of course expecting the aircraft to be a BY 763!! I must have been really stupid to think that Air Scandic would do it again, but I was to be shown the error of my ways as upon arrival at the airport, we got a letter informing that Air Scandic was again operating the service due to a tech aircraft in Manchester!! We checked-in and headed straight through security and into departures. I headed outside to where the spectator terrace is located and to where I watched as G-BYAL get loaded with passengers for its return flight to Luton. As that left, G-OBYH came in from Gatwick which was coincedental. That happened to be the aircraft that was 'broken' or so they say, that was unable to bring us out!! That turned around in quick time and just as it taxied out, in came my good old friend G-TTMC!!! The BY 763 took-off whilst G-TTMC held short of the runway to allow the aircraft to depart!! It then came down the runway to the apron entrance point where it stopped dead in front of the spectator terrace!! The passengers came off the aircraft and fuel was put in, just as the announcement for our flight came on. We went through for a final security check before boarding our bus that would take us out to the aircraft. We came out slowly just as a Helios 738 arrived. We boarded at the back steps and down to our seats where I managed to get a window seat!! We closed the doors and the English captain came on and explained the presence of our big, old bird in Paphos for the third time this week (having also operated the Sunday Air Scandic Paphos service) and a few details for the flight. We taxied out in front of the Helios and soon commenced a rolling take off along the same runway that we landed on. We headed out to sea and headed up over Paphos and up towards Rhodes. The crew commenced the same services, although clever Britannia had supplied SCY with the wrong headsets that only had one pin when a two pin headset was required to listen to the IFE!! The meal came over Italy, which was wotsit chips and boiled potatoes with a curry sauce. It was very nice actually!! All too soon, we were descending into Manchester, commencing the descent over Calais!! :confused: We soon came into a steep descent, with full speedbrakes making a hell of a racket and I handily got a migraine!! Anyway, through the clouds and bizarrely onto a finals I didn't recognize. When I saw a runway appear with the large numbers 06, I realised that we were approaching from the south and we were floating down for a 06L arrival. We touched down hard and applied that really loud reverse thrust :D that I love so much!! We had actually arrived 7 minutes early into Manchester which must be a record!!! We taxied round G-OBYG which appeared to have gone tech, which the captain handily pointed was what had broken down and we arrived on Gate 211 and disembarked.

2 reports to go, oh and I still think that Air Scandic's livery is stunningly hideous even if the service is good!!

Original post

Member for

20 years 10 months

Posts: 9,401

Good report, but as I said before please go easy on the '!!', its nearly every sentence.

Member for

20 years 1 month

Posts: 1,098

Again, I have cut down on the use of '!!' in my sentences. Thanks for that Tom.

Member for

19 years 9 months

Posts: 334

I bet that's a rare occurence, change of a/c type and airline on both flights. I wouldn't be too impressed getting to go on (the same) ancient A300 on both flights.

Member for

20 years 1 month

Posts: 1,098

I wasn't too bad actually!! Needless to say, I believe that G-OBYJ operated the flight following week though!!