easyJet – Gatwick > Cologne/Bonn > Gatwick

Last night, I returned from Germany with easyJet, having spent a weekend in Cologne. Here’s my report:

Wanting a cheap break away, I booked a weekend in Cologne about 6 weeks before I wanted to travel. Cologne itself offered some reasonable value hotels and easyJet was offered flights to the city from Gatwick for a mere £30.98 return. With this in mind, it seemed the ideal place to go.

Our flight to Cologne had a scheduled departure time of 9.00am. Assuming that easyJet had a two hour check-in policy, we hit the the road at 5.00am, getting to our car park for 6.15am and then hopping onto the Coach to the South Terminal in order to arrive before 7.00am.

Check-in was at Zone C and at 6.40am, we were greeted by huge queues. A total of four desks were open, two exclusively for passengers travelling to Zurich and the two we could use were for Prague and Cologne. The queue was enormous, but it only took about 15 minutes to clear the 60 or so passengers ahead of us.

We arrived at the desk and presented our online booking confirmation. The woman quickly checked us in, weighed our baggage and then gave us boarding cards with the numbers 51 and 52. She told us that the baggage belts were not working, so we had to load our cases into big cages, which would later be wheeled to the aircraft.

The Terminal was rather busy, as you can probably expect at that time of the morning. At the check-in desks beside ours, passengers were checking in for a number of different Thomson flights, with destinations including Hurghada and Paphos.

With not too much time on our hands, we proceeded through security, where I set off the detector for some reason. A quick manual search revealed that I was not carrying anything I shouldn’t be.

We took a trip to the ‘Upper Crust’ baguette bar and then I dragged my travelling companion up to the viewing gallery, where we saw what was going on outside. The usual traffic plus a bit more that surprised me. In particular, the germanwings 717, Etihad Airways A340 and a very colourful Continental Airlines 777-200. As I looked towards the ‘satellite’ (the circular part of the terminal out to the right), there was an easyJet A319 parked up away from the rest. It sat next to an Excel Airways 737-800 (G-XLAH) and a Virgin Atlantic 747-400 joined them later on. I thought that easyJet predominantly used gates 1 to 10 on the other side of the airfield.

Shortly after 9.15am, we decided to trot down to the gates 1-10 area, expecting our flight to be departing from one of these gates. There was no information on the screens by this time, so we sat patiently next to an information monitor. By 9.30am, we had figured that with no information available on the screens, we were in the wrong place. We had to follow the route back into departures, walking past several ‘No Entry’ signs, before finding out that flight 5347 to Cologne was actually departing from gate 38!

We made our way to gate 38 and had to pass through several temporary wooden corridors, due to the extensive building work that seemed to be going on. It seemed that our gate was on the ‘satellite’, and our aircraft was that random A319 which was parked up all by itself! From the main terminal, we walked out onto the apron and boarded a bus, along with about 15 or so others who were on either the easyJet flight or the Excel Airways flight to wherever it was going. As we waited on the bus, a Continental 767-200 arrived and taxiied behind us, eventually parking up behind that colourful 777-200 and another 777 in the bog-standard colour scheme. The bus drove us to the ‘satellite’ and we had to walk through another wooden corridor and up a flight of steps. At the top of the steps, it was a total mess. Building work going on everywhere and a freezing cold building.

We were unbelievably amongst the first to arrive at the gate, but boarding was already under way. Passengers holding cards 1 to 60 were boarding at the time we arrived, so we walked down the jetty and onto our A319 aircraft flying us to Cologne. It was G-EZAM.

The aircraft was almost empty when we stepped on board. We could see the back rows were completely empty, so we headed in that direction. The last row, row 26, didn’t have any windows, so we opted for seats 25E and 25F.

An on-time departure was certain. Passengers trickled onto the aircraft, the doors were closed and we pushed back shortly after 8.50am. The Captain explained that Gatwick was particularly busy at this time of the day, so it may take some time to get to the runway – in this case, runway 26L, literally a few minutes away.

The crew performed a safety demonstration and requested everybody’s attention. We were told that safety procedures vary from aircraft to aircraft, and they did. This A319 was like no other – it had 4 overwing exits, opposed to the usual 2. It was like an A320, minus a few rows.

Come 9.00am, we were on the runway and accelerating. In seconds, we were airborne, on our way to Cologne. Cologne was only a few hundred miles away and easyJet assigns an hour and 20 minutes for its flights. An estimated flight time of 55 minutes was given.

Cabin service was soon underway and the items being sold were reasonable value. A soft drink would set you back just 60p, and a hot drink was slightly more at £1.60. Sandwiches and snack packs were available to those who wanted them for about £3.00.

Before we had time to get comfortable, the seatbelt sign was on again and were descended from our cruise altitude of 23,000ft into Cologne.

At 11.05am local time, we smoothly touched down on the runway.

At Terminal 2, we left the exit by the forward and rear doors via sets of steps. Ground staff pointed us into the rather colourful terminal, which is made almost totally from glass! Peering in, passengers could be seen waiting for the return flight to Gatwick. We trolled past and once into the terminal, had to go downstairs.

The inside of the terminal was nice. It was modern and extremely clean. The walls were shiny metal. We had to queue at passport control and were the last in the queue to have our passports checked. The guy who was checking them was taking his time. Almost 30 minutes after landing, we got to the baggage carousel to collect our bags. Usually, you get there and wait for ages for your bags to appear. Instead, there were just two bags spinning around on it, one of which was mine.

After passing through customs, we went to the train station, which is within the terminal building, and caught the train to the centre of Cologne.

Cologne only had so much to offer, so we arrived at the airport for our return flight an hour or so before check-in would open. I wanted to see what the airport had to offer. It was getting dark when we arrived and I could not see any viewing facilities. Before passing into departures, there was only once area from where you could see arriving traffic and that was at a glass wall, next to the British Airways ticket sales desk. Traffic was common, but there was some private traffic and some larger, Soviet-built aircraft using the airport, along with Hapag-Lloyd and Hapag-Lloyd Express aircraft at the airport.

Our flight was on the screen and so far, was scheduled to leave for London on-time at 9.30pm. Check-in would be from 7.30pm at desks 21 and 22. At 7.00pm, we went and stood at the empty check-in desks and shortly afterwards, people started to follow us. Although there was no easyJet information on the board above the desk and no check-in agent present, a queue of 20 or so people had formed.

By 7.10pm, a member of staff came to the desks and said that check-in would start in 20 minutes. She loaded her labels and tickets into the printers at each of the desks and was then joined by a colleague. They both sat down and check-in was under way – by 7.15pm.

Being at the front, we were issued boarding cards 1 and 2 and were sure to get a good seat for the flight home. Our bags were swallowed up by a big creme box at the end of the conveyor belt and we made our way through security (where I beeped again) and into the disappointing departures area.

Peering around, a private 737 was parked up at the terminal. It was flying on behalf of the Ford Motor Company to London Stansted and a group of people gathered at the gate for the flight. Quite surprising really. I don’t know if this is a regular thing or not?

The shops were rubbish, so we followed the signs to gate D11. Our trip to the gate tooked us past a second set of security screening equipment, down a flight of steps and into a large seating area at ground level. We were again surrounded by more shiny metal walls.

Looking out onto the tar-mac, a 737 had arrived next to us. It had a German registration and a Turkish flag by the tail and it was bound for Antalya. And on our stand, a germanwings A319 arrived and departed in record-breaking time. Its turnaround was by far the quickest I’ve ever seen.

Time really dragged on and most people were getting tired. It was nice just to relax in the comfortable chairs in the gate area. A rather annoying German security officer came down into the lounge and said that we all had to go up to be security screened (again). “Ridiculous!” I thought. What was the point in screening us all now? When he disappeared, any dodgy passenger could have popped into the toilet and hidden any prohibited items in there. These could then have been collected once they had been screened. I couldn’t understand why it was necessary for us to have second screenings when all other flights were only having the one!

Boarding was to start, according to our boarding cards, at 9.00pm. When you consider that there was not an aircraft at the gate at this time, it was impossible. The staff who would get all the passengers on board the aircraft for the flight to Gatwick arrived at the gate and opened the doors to the apron. Passengers suddenly shot out of their seats and rushed towards the open doors. When the dispatcher pointed out to the empty stand, they all edged back to their seats, realising that there was not an aircraft to get onto!

At 9.10pm, G-EZDC pulled onto the stand and a queue formed at the gate as the passengers from the inbound flight were disembarked. As the last passenger got off of the aircraft, we were all allowed to walk to the aircraft. A dispatcher told us to use either of the doors, but explained that we had to wait at the bottom of the steps. We stood in the cold for 5 minutes before we could get on. Clearly, someone had started boarding far too early!

Again, we occupied the same seats as we did outbound, 25E and 25F and we got comfortable for the homeward bound flight. Minutes after boarding started, the doors were closed and we were pushing back for the very short taxi to the runway. It seemed that the crew were having trouble with dimming the lights. As we turned onto the runway in the pitch black, the cabin was still completely lit. Eventually, the lights were switched off, but the ceiling in the centre of the cabin was still giving off plenty of light. If the worst were to happen, my eyes were certainly not adjusted to the darkness. With British Airways last week, the cabin was plunged into darkness on both flights.

Less than a minute after taking off, the lights were switched back on again and the crew were already roaming around the cabin. The aircraft was still in a steep climb, being tossed from side to side by slight turbulence and the crew were still grabbing onto the seats in order to get from one end of the aircraft to another!

Anyway, inflight service was as can be expected for the short one hour hop to London. A quick drink and a snack and it was time for landing at Gatwick on runway 8R. We simply touch down and roll off of the runway and onto the stand at Gatwick’s South Terminal.

The flaps were fully extended for landing and you could hear the gear click into place. It was very windy and you could feel the Captain wrestling to keep the aircraft steady. The lights on the ground got closer and closer and we were literally seconds from touchdown, when all of a sudden, full-throttle, nose up and up we go again. The aircraft had to initiate a go-around and the crew were quick to make the announcement just in case anyone was unsure as to what was going on.

The drunken loud-mouth behind me was swearing and was convinced it was down to not so great piloting of the aircraft. He knew the Pilot had overshot the runway, when it turned out to be a slightly more common cause – an aircraft still on the runway.

We made a right turn and joined the queue for landing again. Fortunately, this attempt was successful. The weather made the landing quite interesting. It felt as if we landed on the rear right gear, then bounced onto the left, then left the ground, then came back down on both! The aircraft could be felt swerving from side to side as we came to a halt, resulting in a few gasps from passengers all over the aircraft.

We left the runway to the left and pulled straight onto a remote stand, alongside a Britannia Airways 757-200 and an Excel Airways 737-800 (G-XLAH) which was being hosed down.

Despite the small problem on approach, we still arrived 3 minutes early. Our flight of just under one hour (as told when we boarded) ended up being 1 hour and 17 minutes.

On the ground at Gatwick, we had to wait a good 10 minutes for buses to take us to the terminal to collect our baggage. Being at the back of the aircraft, we were the last passengers off and there was no room whatsover on the bus. A few of us waited for the next one and travelled comfortably to the terminal. Gatwick was a breeze and we flew through passport control and into baggage claim. Because of the delay getting off of the aircraft, our baggage was already spinning around the carousel, so we grabbed it and dashed through customs to catch our bus.

Our journey time through Gatwick was no more than 5 minutes!

Anyway, I’ve gone for ages now. easyJet was a great experience and an airline I will definitely use again the future. Their services are far superior to Ryanair in my opinion!

Below: The wing of G-EZAM as we descend into Cologne

Below: Hapag Lloyd Express 737(-700?) at Cologne

Below: The check-in area at Cologne

Below: Gate D11 where we waited at Cologne to bard EZY5346