The No 1 Traveller lounge is quite small; probably not bigger than some regional airport lounges (e.g. in Australia). I guess they never figured that many people flying FR will have lounge subscriptions or will cough up for an entry. The decor is quite nice - elegant yet simple. As I entered the lounge, my Priority Pass card was taken and I was issued a receipt for my entry. After that, I was given a quick tour of the lounge, shown the small free buffet, and informed that my entry entitled me to one free substantial item from the a la carte menu. The lounge has wifi and a nice view of the tarmac. There was a little lounging area with a TV for those so interested. There was also a bar, but it was too early in the morning, and I believe it's a cash bar.






Inside the No 1 Traveller Lounge at Gate 49, STN


Breakfast buffet selection - all complimentary here

The substantial morning a la carte menu consisted of two items - a bacon roll, and an omelette roll. I selected the omelette roll and asked for a latte, then sat myself on one of the nicely upholstered leather couches near the window. There was a power point near by which meant I could get a bit of charge into my devices. A code on a slip of paper at the front desk enabled the use of the wifi, which was at pretty good speed. Soon after, the roll arrived on a little wooden chopping board. The roll was nicely toasted and the roll appeared to had been assembled fresh, rather than say just a prepacked roll that had been microwaved then given a quick go over in the sandwich press.


Breakfast roll from the a la carte menu.

I finished up breakfast and then started to think about making my way to the gate. It was approaching T-45 minutes to departure, which probably meant it was a good time to start thinking about getting into the boarding queue. Although priority boarding on FR can be purchased for a fee, it's free-for-all seating once on board. I gathered up my belongings and made my way back down the concourse to my gate, just as it was about 50 minutes before boarding.


Flight: Ryanair FR8353 London Stansted (STN) - Budapest (Budapest Liszt Ferenc Nemzetközi Repülotér) (BUD T2)
Depart: Sched 0825h; Actual 0856h
Duration: 2 h 20 min
Distance: 904 mi (1,455 km)
Aircraft: EI-EFB Boeing 737-800
Class: Economy
Seat: 32D


One thing was missing, however. Our aircraft. There was no aircraft at our gate. Uh oh... delay. Nevertheless, everyone had started to get in line in anticipation of boarding, and even with the delayed arrival of the aircraft, no one was going to sit down and give up their place outside the queue, because that just means less chance of getting a good seat (and overhead space) once on board. So everyone just stood and waited. Most of the crowd seemed to be Hungarians, judging by the language of the murmurs. I started looking at some of the bags being brought on board and thought, "This will not end well for these guys".

Minutes passed by. Some people left the line to do last minute shopping, or use the bathroom. Soon enough, however, a FR aircraft was seen taxiing at what appeared to be full speed towards our position, then a sharp turn into the stand and preparing for docking.

FR aircraft are a bit unusual in a number of ways. FR use all Boeing 737-800 aircraft and the front door has a retractable stair case built into it. I guess this not only saves money at some airports as that's one less set of stairs required, but it also enables FR to land at airports which may not have such facilities (or enough of them), i.e. the smaller regional airports which have cheaper rates than the primary hubs. FR boards from both the front and the back of the aircraft, with an additional set of stairs wheeled into position at the back. The arriving passengers were quickly scrambled off the aircraft as all of us at the gate finally prepared for boarding.

All of us boarded the aircraft by descending down the stairs onto the tarmac, and then we followed the paths to either the front or the rear boarding stairs. Boarding proceeded and basically consisted of two checks. The first check involved an agent checking the sizes of bags and guessing their weight, and pulling aside people who may be in breach of the cabin baggage guidelines, who were then asked to test their bag in a sizing bracket. If it didn't fit the bracket, it wasn't going on, and several people were pulled aside and forced to repack or consider checking in their bag (at the at-airport rate, of course). All of us had our A4 sheets of boarding pass in hand, which was promptly scanned and the counterfoil at the bottom of the page crudely torn away as we passed through.

Since FR have a no allocated seating policy, my strategy was to race to the back door and take the first viable seat I could find. I was reckoning that most people may not fill from the back as quickly as they do through the front, and all I was happy for would be an aisle seat, preferably with some space in the overhead, but I'd take that as a secondary. My strategy seemed to be vindicated as I headed through the back and found a seat a few rows in. A quick scan of the overheads going forth showed little prospects of a good seat with overhead space, so I satisfied myself with the seat I found and sat down before anyone else had the same idea as me.


FR legroom.

I'll be frank: there isn't a lot of legroom in FR seats. For those of you who are quite tall or plump, you may struggle a little bit in your seat, and it does not help if you cannot put your cabin bag in the overhead. It was adequate for a flight not much longer than a couple of hours. The seats are leather with a plastic shell and have no recline. Life jackets are located in the overhead panels rather than under seats. It's a tight fit aircraft, not much different to an average non-luxury bus, carrying up to 189 passengers at (mostly) rock bottom prices.


FR cabin. If you've ever owned a pair of yellow gum boots before, the colour accents are probably familiar to you. The blank panelling on the overhead bins are reserved for advertising space, which is another revenue stream for FR.


FR has lifejackets stored in the overhead panels.


Safety information printed on a small panel on the back of each seat, which eliminates the need for loose safety information cards.

The FR crew - short of ensuring their legal and safety obligations - seemed to exhibit as much frivolity in their mannerisms, similar to that of their company CEO. I overheard some joking that we (pax) shouldn't complain so much about FR being cheap, after all, toilets were still free of charge! Then, as we prepared to close out the cabin and push back, the purser came on with, "Good morning ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls..."... the only thing he could've done to make it more cheesy would be the stretch out the 'Goooooooooooooooooood morning'. We pushed back from gate and a short safety demo was given. We had quite a taxi from terminal to runway; our pilots put their foot to the accelerator, so to speak, in making the long taxi to the runway, and continued their urgency as they powered up the engines and took off.

I was one of the very lucky ones on this aircraft. There was a spare seat between myself and my seat mate in 32F, and we definitely wasted no time stretching to the spare seat space as well as moving our belongings to the spare foot space in 32E.

Ryanair, like most other budget carriers, raise a significant amount of revenue through buy-on-board sales. Throughout the flight, Ryanair sell three kinds of products to raise revenue: your standard buy-on-board refreshments (snacks, drinks), duty free (including Ryanair bric-a-brac), and raffle tickets for prize draws; the last one apparently raises money for a charity rather than FR pockets. Nothing is free on board - not even water, and not even ice. Without fail, of course there were many people on board who handed over their cash to purchase refreshments and drinks, even if it was the cheap tasting (or so it looked) coffee, or the simplest cup of tea. I, of course, bought nothing from the trolley, but instead just relaxed on the flight and tried to get a bit of sleep. I just imagined it as just another BNE/MEL flight that I knew well.

I did have to use the bathroom once during the flight, and yes when I flew them that time, use of the bathrooms was free of charge! At least it was clean.

I caught up with some sleep on the flight until we started to approach BUD. We landed at BUD with a soundly thud, then started our hasty taxi to the remote stand. FR crew still crack jokes here and there, such as, "If you would like to smoke in the airport, we'd like to remind you that it's a dirty and expensive habit, but you'll still have no luck as it is not allowed in the terminal." The usual long winded announcements followed, ending with the usual company plug. We parked at a stand quite some distance away from the terminal. Shuttle buses were summoned into place as the stairs were positioned for disembarkation. We poured off the plane into the waiting shuttle buses, which were stuffed to the gills before we were allowed to move towards the terminal for arrivals procedures.


Our FR aircraft parked on the tarmac at BUD. This photo was taken from inside the shuttle bus as we made our way towards the terminal.