FCA4448 & FCA4449 Gatwick-Thessaloniki-Gatwick (pics and videos)

Right, just got back from the airport so here goes… 🙂

FCA4448
Gatwick – Thessaloniki
3rd August

G-OOBC

Scheduled Departure Time: 0540
Actual Departure Time: 0550

Scheduled Arrival Time: 1055
Actual Arrival Time: 1030

A nice early start for this one so we left our house at about 0245 for the 40 minute drive to the airport, which was good in some ways but bad in others – we were originally due to fly at 1730 but the flights were changed. We arrived at the BCP car park around half three and after having handed the car over, we boarded the coach for the 10 minute journey to the North Terminal. The terminal was not very busy, as you’d expect for 0400, but there was a small queue at the First Choice check in. Alongside our flight, there were 2 FCA flights to Faro both leaving at 0600 checking in, and the delayed Margarita flight from the day before was still on the departure board showing ‘Delayed’.

The baggage belt broke which kept us there a little longer than expected, but our passage through security was even worse, with a huge queue snaking through the terminal. One good thing was that it meant less time hanging around airside. There was no reason for the delay but an apology was made via a tannoy announcement.

We eventually made it through to the lounge at 0435 and there was just enough time to browse through WH Smiths before we were told to ‘Go to Gate 48’, which was very quickly replaced with ‘Board Gate 48’. Upon arrival at the gate area, our passports and boarding cards were inspected and we were allowed straight onto our plane as we were sitting in row 9 (DEF), which is a left turn once you enter the door. We were greeted by some very lovely cabin crew and about 20 minutes later, at 0530, boarding was complete and the doors shut. A 767 was parked on stand 46:

The captain came on and said we had a slot to make so we’d be off immediately, and that we’d fly towards Bognor Regis initially and then towards Paris and Zurich. No sooner had he finished talking to us we were pushing away and starting the engines as the safety demo was done, which consisted of a video.

The taxi started at 0545 and 5 minutes later, after a company 757 had landed, we departed runway 26L:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is1pLtTYN1w

Once in the cruise, we had our breakfast:

… and enjoyed the entertainment (not the video though) and views:

The flight was smooth apart from a bit of clear air turbulence over Italy, which was experiencing some nasty thunderstorms. The service was faultless and the flight was super. Our flight was very short due to tail winds:

Descent started just after 1000 Greek time and we landed onto runway 34 in glorious sunshine, which stayed with us for the whole 2 weeks. Lovely 😀 😀
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNsPjaCh6OA
There was even some humour in the flight as we taxied in, when the Cabin Supervisor forgot the captain’s name during the ‘Welcome to destination’ announcement and she ended up calling him ‘Captain Mike’, which got quite a few giggles from the passengers. As we disembarked and boarded the coaches to the terminal, I saw an Aegean B737-300, an Olympic ATR , some Hapag Fly 737-800s and an LTU A330.

Our cases arrived very swiftly and we began our lovely holiday in the resort of Hanioti – highly recommended:)

FCA4449
Thessaloniki – Gatwick
17th August

G-OOBC

Scheduled Departure Time: 1155
Actual Departure Time: 1250

Scheduled Arrival Time: 1320
Actual Arrival Time: 1350

Our transfer coach to the airport was running early, so we ended up arriving before most of the other passengers which meant less queuing, but we still had to wait outside the terminal before being called in. During this time, one of the tour reps said that our flight had a 35 minute delay and the Manchester flight had a 40 minute delay. No real problem.

After 30 minutes of waiting we got into the terminal and had our baggage screened before checking in. We had been told to take no liquids in our hand baggage, like normal now, but it didn’t seem to matter as security wasn’t excessively severe. We were issued seats 6ABC this time.

The terminal is very big compared to most Greek airports but it barely coped. There was a small Duty Free shop and a newsagents plus the usual cafe. Our flight landed from Gatwick 40 minutes late at 1135 and it was G-OOBC again. 🙁

Boarding was from gate 17 and we took a bus to the aircraft which was full, give or take a couple of seats. Everyone was onboard by 1220 & the captain introduced himself (didn’t catch his name) but the First Officer was called Nick Wells. Our flight time was to be 3 hours, and he explained that the reason for the delay was due to a delay on a flight overnight that the plane had done, so it left Gatwick about 1 hour late this morning. He informed us of our route, which was to be over Macedonia, Bosnia, Croatia, over Venice and the Alps and to the east of Paris, all at FL360.

Engines were started at 1240 and we taxied to runway 34 again, pausing slightly at the holding point to allow a little turboprop to land. Then, the engines were spooled up and we rocketed down the runway:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qkuyxyu12kU

Weather conditons en-route were excellent with no turbulence at all and excellent views:
.
It was slow progress, though, as the moving map display showed a headwind of 120 km/h for the first bit of the journey.

The meal, Cottage Pie (yuck)with ‘garden vegetables’ (even yucker 😀 ) , was served mid way through the flight and the film was called ‘Eight Below’, but I flicked through the 9 music channels before deciding to listen to the Disco Music channel.

Our descent began at 1325 and we landed onto runway 08R twenty-five minutes later, only 30 minutes late. An Excel 757 landed just behind us so we kept our speed up on the runway before vacating. It took a long time to taxi in as we had to wait for G-OOBG to vacate our stand, stand 102 at the Pier 6 satellite. The passengers for its next flight to Sharm El Sheikh were already on their way to the gate as we disembarked.

Overall, a very enjoyable flight and will fly again:)

Hope you enjoyed,
Tom.