FR5318 SCQ-MAD 737-Next Gen EI-DYK

There weren’t a lot of options to get away from Santiago de Compostela. Last time I took Aer Lingus to Dublin, but this time Ryan Air provided the best option for a late evening flight back to MAD then the previously reported LH flight MAD-MUC-ARN.

The timing of the flight wasn’t the greatest 22:25 – 23:40 but it would have to do.

I booked the airport transfer from the Ryan Air website included in all those upselling ads they bombard you with. It turns out the transfer was cheaper to buy onboard than from the website and it was a hassle having to print the transfer “boarding pass”. I’ll file that one away for future reference Mr Ryan Air.

We arrived at the small airport about 2 ½ hours prior to departure and the Ryan Air check-in was open as they had a number of flights departing. There was a very short queue at security – which is always the case when you have plenty of time.

There was a small duty free shop with the normal selection. I found a powerpoint under an “in-floor” outlet and maximised my use of the 30 minutes (only) free WiFi. For the technically minded it must have been MAC based rather than cookie based so I couldn’t find an easy way around it with my iPhone. Come-on guys, what’s wrong with offering a decent amount of time?

This was the last flight of the day so they repurposed the non-schengen gate for this flight – I presme because it had more room. Boarding commenced as the inbound flight arrived (it was early). So boarding passengers were queuing in one jetway before the deplaning passengers even started to disembark. But it was less cattle-like than my EasyJet experience a few years earlier from Bordeaux.

Boarding was via the tarmac and was complete at 22:15 and doors closed at 22:10. Taxi started at 22:29. The rather bright canary yellow and blue interior was looking somewhat dated and tired. But it would have been worse if the advertising panels had been full.

Upon boarding a FA greeted me, noting my height said he would move me to a seat with more leg room when boarding was complete. Wow! That’s good service : I’ve never heard that before (except at check-in). But I never saw him again – so any extra service points were deducted again.
The safety card was a sticker on the back of the seat back in front and the in-flight magazine was distributed to those who requested it.

It was a short flight so there was just a very quick trolley run, with very few buyers then time for descent into MAD.

We landed at 23:18 to a small round of applause and an on-time fanfare was played over the PA during the long taxi. During the flight there were no announcements from the flight deck.

We arrived at the gate at 23:33 and luggage arrived at 23:41. I guess we might have been the last flight here too and the baggage handlers wanted to go home. Regardless +1 to Ryan Air.