Newcastle - Arrecife - Newcastle......again

By: captainben - 8th April 2005 at 13:31

It's been my 3rd time in a year I've been to Lanzarote, and booking it with Airtours, meant we flew out with My Travel. It was quite an experience, we arrived at Newcastle Airport on the 31st around 12pm, an hour early and the queue was right from the check in desk to the door. We checked in and couldn't get seats together (which was a pain :mad: ) with a row between us. Upstairs we went through to departures and on to Gate 19 where I had realised there was another flight to Arrecife, Thomas Cook, 5 minutes after us. Our flight (MYT811) was operated by My Travel A320 G-SUEW. It was parked on a remote stand (Stand 15) and towed to Stand 7. The Thomas Cook flight was operated by G-FCLA and left 10 minutes after us. We boarded the plane and were seated on rows 20A, B, C and 22A, B, C. We took off at 15.05 on Runway 07 at Newcastle which saw us depart over the coast, but there wasn't much to see out the window like, just low cloud. Anyway, we climbed to 33000ft and climbed on to 35000ft. Our meal was Chicken Pie (which I'd quite happily eat again ;) ) but the downer of the flight was the entertainment on board. The films were'nt exactly brilliant (Shark Tale and Ladder 49) which I couldn't be bothered with so I tried putting my head back to realx. Although I couldn't, two old fellas behind us, were having a whale of a time and every time the trolley went past it was always "Here love, 2 double whiskies please." Which I wasn't bothered about until they started kicking the chairs and kicking rubbish under our seats. Then the meals came and things just got worse. One fella spilt all his meal on the floor and window, and then dropped he's coffee, which went all ove the back of me legs :mad: and then they sort of calmed down and fell asleep for a while ;) . We then started our descent into Arrecife, and turned over the resort of Puerto Del Carmen (which is where we were staying) and over Arrecife. We had a rock hard landing on Runway 03 on time at 19.30 and parked on a remote stand next to an Iberworld A320. What the air hostesses forgot to tell us was that the cleaners were on strike in the airport, even the aircraft cleaners so they had to clean up after everyone. When we walked through to arrivals I was gobsmacked, I'd never seen such a mess in my entire life! :eek: The floor was covered in hacky dust and baggage tags and labels and empty food and drinks cartons, everything was just hacky.

Anyway, on with the homeward flight. We arrived at Arrecife Airport to see cleaners sitting on the floor with banners in Spanish and rubbish everywhere. There was even boarding cards there from weeks beforehand. We checked in at Check In Desk 1 and it was very quick and efficient and we had seats together! :D We then walked through to departures where the rubbish was even worse, food trays, empty coffee cups, tab ends everything. However, on the bus to the Airport, the rep said that due to the strike there would be no cleaners and no announcements for Departures. We got through to Departures and there was the odd cleaner with there cleaning trolley :confused: and anouncements were being made :confused: ! Baffles me! But I enjoyed sitting watching the planes land and take off for the next couple of hours. Some included G-SSAS to Gatwick, G-OOBJ, G-CPEU, G-JMCG (which was the the aircraft that brought me to Lanzarote for the first time as C-FOOE), a Martinair A320 which to departed to Fuerteventura and Amsterdam, and loads more that I can't remember! Our aircraft arrived on time at 19.30 to take us back to Newcastle and was G-SUEW again. We got in the queue at Gate 4 and boarded the aircraft on seats 22D, E, F, 23D, E and F. We waited on the ground for arounf half an hour which delayed us for a bit, due to the baggage handlers taking forever with the bags. So we eventually departed at 20.50 on Runway 03 and had just about no leg room and I'm 6 foot 1 which was murder for me. We enjoyed a meal of Sausage and Mash and the film was a bit rubbish n'all.....Cellular starring Kim Basinger :confused: so I was a bit bored for a bit. However, my mood was enlightened by the Captain announcing that the ATC in Lisbon said that Alan Shearer scored the winning goal for Newcastle United against Sporting Lisbon! We eventually started our descent over Manchester and was very quick and bumpy due to the low cloud and rain that was over the North East. We flew over the Tyne, and up the coast making a left turn onto Runway 25. We landed 7 minutes early at 00.43 and it was stotting it down with Sleet, and parked at Stand 8 and disembarked the plane. I was only in me Newcastle shirt and shorts which was a bit stupid saying as it was 3 degrees in Newcastle :o . As we walked through to arrivals, I noticed that the Thomas Cook 757, G-JMCG had just landed 5 minutes after us, and that a SATA Internacional A310 was about to depart on 25 taking the defeated team Sporting Lisbon home :D . But all in all, I enjoyed the flight home more than the outbound flight and would fly again with My Travel, it wouldn't be my first choice, but it was passable. Pictures will follow on the main forum ;) .