If you are an EU or EEA citizen and you have your boarding pass sorted out in advance (which you have to do to avoid charges) then 1 hour would be fine. MLA isn't a big airport and the locals are used to arriving fairly late. If you are not a European passport holder you may need to arrive a little earlier, you need to print your boarding pass in advance, since they need to stamp your boarding pass.

Thanks for the reply. I have British Passport and boarding pass. When do they stamp the boarding pass? Do I just go straight to security? (Carry On)

If you have a British passport then they don't stamp it. So yes, you can proceed straight to security and on to the gate, they will start the boarding process about 40 minutes before departure but the deadline to be at the gate is 20 minutes. I wouldn't rely on that final time so 30 minutes at the gate gives you a margin.

Though, depending on when you travel, this may have changed.

At least not before Brexit. As with anything about Brexit, it is unclear what happens after Brexit.

FYI - FR no longer has a doccheck for intra-Schengen flights.

So, I'm looking at the seating for my flight this weekend, FR5041 LBA-BTS. I'm looking to see what's going on with seat reservations.

Quite surprised to see that by far the majority of the pre-reserved seats are in the half of the plane behind the wings. I'm trying to think of a rational reason why this would be.

Now, I'm conscious that if you board at the rear, you can get on and off as quickly as if you board at the front, so it's like free "Quick Exit" seats right at the back, but that doesn't explain why up the middle of the plane, it's mostly reserved behind the wings. Is there a trick I don't know about?

Now, I'm still booked in 1A, currently all on my own, and all the other priority seats behind me are currently unassigned. My reckoning is that there's 1 seat left on the flight (I can't book more than 1 ticket). I'm guessing that the last randomly allocated seats will be at the front of the plane (they'll allocate middle non-premium first and such to give people the chance to upgrade right up until departure). If that final ticket doesn't sell, does that mean seat 1B might be empty? Can I assume that if I swap to 2A, or 16A, the rest of the row will be filled with random allocations?

Is there an opportune time to check in if non-priority and get the plum seats? Or is it totally unpredictable?

Not important, just trying a bit of fun to predict

i checked in for a FR flight a few days ago 3 hours before departure ... and was given 3C - which i was quite happy with !

Because these seats are the cheapest ones to reserve. The reservation price differs by the row (not just between "premium" seats at the front and the rest), and those rows are the cheapest ones. Rows behind the wings cost like 4EUR/seat on short routes, with the price slowly increasing when moving towards the rear or towards the front.

So for a couple wanting to sit together, or for someone just wanting an aisle/window seat without wanting the best seat on the plane, these seats are quite a reasonable option.

Bad seats always go away first, so check in as late as you can to get the best seats. The limiting factor here is the risk that your mobile phone malfunctions at the last moment and you miss the 2-hour check in deadline.

If you get a "random" seat during check in and don't like it, you'll still have an option to select a better seat for a price (which doesn't differ much from the price of advance reservations, although the cheapest seats will all be already occupied).

Thanks for that, it's kind of what I was thinking.

I also noticed while reading around the subject that the rear of the plane is where you have to buy your one reserved seat if you want your kids to sit next to you, so that would also cause a mass of people to sit at the back.

I know nothing about the physics of aviation. Does this mean that on a flight which is less full, more people have to be allocated random seats towards the front in order to balance the plane, or am I overthinking this?

I'll keep doing what I'm doing and booking 1A for the time being. I like the space, the access to the toilets, and the fact I've only got one person next to me, as well as unfettered access to the catering!

I saw FAs occasionally move people from some rows to the front of the plane for weight and balance reasons. So it appears that weight&balance issues have no influence on the random seat allocation.

Annoyingly, 1B has now been reserved. I suspect that 1C is probably the least attractive seat on the front row with people walking past, and the flight is now full, so I'm guessing the only seats that won't be occupied will be no-shows.

I've been watching as people without priority now check in and the random seat allocation is currently centre seats from the rear to the front, including the overwing exit rows. Most of the seats in the front rows are still empty, which bodes well for overhead locker space. Guessing that all the overwings are adults, and also guessing that if they turn out to be unsuitable for those seats they'll be swapped with someone else?

If you pay for a seat allocation within the 48 hour check-in window, do you still get priority and 2 cabin bags? Just, obviously, priority is pointless if everyone on the plane gets it, and there's no point sitting at the front if you can't get in the overhead bin. At the minute, if there's no more Priority, bin space will be plentiful.

Baggage allowance
 

Please excuse this noob question. I haven't flown with Ryanair for several years and am unsure of the latest baggage allowances. I understand that as a non priority ticket holder I am entitled to one piece of hand luggage. Does the price include the 10kg hold luggage or is that extra?

in my experience, low cost airlines don't really take too much of an interest in such things !

Ryanair allow half the plane to get priority boarding / cabin wheelie - once all those are sold you have to check in your wheely.
So if you pay for a seat you don't get automatically get priority boarding - they are two separate fees.

Not now, no. It's an underseat sized bag only. 40x20x25. Your 10kg hold bag costs extra.