With the short one-night stay in Dublin completed, it’s time to head back to the UK via Birmingham for my actual holiday destination, on Ryanair FR666 from Dublin Terminal 1.
I quite like the departure screens showing the direction to the check-in row, makes it so much faster to figure out where to go.
Ryanair’s check-in row is at Row 13, complete with their own branding. from the queue poles to the entire wall. Again, I checked with the staff on hand regarding a verification stamp on my boarding pass, and she explained that it’s usually for flights to the Schengen Area and usually not the UK. With that out of the way, I headed to departures happily.
The departure hall of Dublin Airport Terminal 1.
Heading to the departure area.
Once through security, the path leads direct to the duty-free shops. There is no exit immigration at Dublin Airport.
Last-minute Irish souvenirs are available here.
A really long line of duty free shops at Dublin Airport.
Hmm, is this MAX?
Heading to the faraway gates where Ryanair operates out of.
My Ryanair FR666 flight will be departing from Gate 107.
Heading to the pier for Gates 101 – 121.
Hello Ryanair.
Ryanair’s territory at the pier for Gates 101 – 121.
Heading to my gate.
With an empty gate and sizer, I decided to try it out to see if my small bag would fit.
The famous Ryanair bag sizer.
The small space for a small bag.
And my bag fits perfectly, with some height and width allowance to spare. My bag is pretty much Ryanair’s specified size, so the additional sizer allowance as promoted is true after all. How generous of Ryanair.
My gate at Gate 107, with the queue for Birmingham forming already.
And here comes my plane – EI-EBH.
Passengers coming in from Birmingham disembarking.
The rear set of mobile stairs took a little longer to activate – now I see the benefit of the fold-out airstair at the front door.
Passengers walking to the terminal on the apron.
My boarding pass for my Ryanair FR666 flight from Dublin Terminal 1 to Birmingham.
The throng of Priority passengers had to wait at the apron while the crew readies the cabin.
Glad I’m a Non-Priority passenger who is waiting in the terminal.
Heading to get my boarding pass checked.
Heading down the stairs to the apron.
Hello Ryanair.
As my seat was towards the front, I boarded by the front door.
Heading up the airstair.
The bold Ryanair branding on the side of the Boeing 737-800.
The interior of Ryanair’s Boeing 737-800.
The legroom of Ryanair’s Boeing 737-800 with my small bag underneath the seat in front of me.
The view of the aircraft from my seat.
The view of the safety sticker from my seat.
The aircon vents, reading lights and fasten seat belt signs.
The view of the neighbouring aircraft from my seat.
Pushing back from the stand.
As the crew came around after the safety demonstration, they were very stringent in window shades and seat belt checks, and even made sure that everyone was wearing a jacket during take-off – even telling those that had already kept them in the overhead bins to put them back on. I felt that this made for a very safe flight.
Taxiing to the runway.
The dimmed interior of the aircraft with some reading lights on.
Turning onto Runway 10.
Taking off from Dublin at 9.19pm – 34 minutes late.
Goodbye Dublin.
Flying out of mainland Ireland towards the Irish Sea.
I had wanted to purchase the Ryanair aircraft model during the duty free sales, but the sales couldn’t start in time after the food and beverages round was made and the sales were shut by the time I asked to buy it after the meal rounds (since no announcements were made for duty-free sales), just shortly before the cabin was prepared for landing. The male steward came around and apologised to me once he went back to check if he was able to sell the plane model to me, which I thought was pretty great rather than just saying that he can’t sell it to me.
Descending into Birmingham.
Touched down into Birmingham at 9.56pm – 6 minutes delayed. Unfortunately, the Ryanair jingle wasn’t played on this flight too, probably due to the delay.
Here it is again if you’d like to listen to it.
I was a bit worried by now though, since I had a train to catch at 10.14pm back to Oxford – the last direct train of the day.
Taxiing to the gate.
Turning into the gate.
Flybe’s Embraer 175 at Birmingham Airport.
Preparing the stand for arrival passengers.
Thankfully, Ryanair’s obsession to speed up almost all processes possible made for a quick disembarkation with the fold-out airstairs.
While disembarking, the same steward who helped me check on the aircraft model was thanking passengers upon disembarking, and when he saw me again, he apologised for the closure of the duty-free sales again twice. Great service right there.
Thank you Ryanair, you’ve been great.
Heading up to the aerobridge to enter the terminal building.
Rushing up to try to make my train.
Heading through the baggage reclaim area.
Running to the AirRail Link station after exiting through customs.
Heading up to the AirRail Link station to catch the AirRail Link shuttle train to Birmingham International Railway Station to make my train.
Overall, another great flight with Ryanair, the internet’s favourite airline to hate on. If I’m travelling light in Europe, Ryanair might actually be my first choice to fly on given their high frequency of flights, overall speed of boarding and disembarking, generous legroom, and of course, surprisingly low fares.
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