LBA-PRG Jet 2

Just had 3 days in Prague with the wife and 6 friends and we flew Jet 2 from LBA. This was our first scheduled flight with them, but we had experienced their aircraft on a charter flight to Toulouse in 2003.

Flight was at about 5pm on Sunday night – arrived 2 hours before departure after a 15 minute drive from home!

Check in painless, LBA much busier than it used to be on a Sunday evening. Jet 2 flights to Geneva and Venice also checking in with departure times 30 mins before ours.

KLM flight to AMS left to be replaced at the airbridge by Jet 2 ‘Yorkshire’ liveried a/c. Depsite being told to go to gate 4 this was our a/c. Overcrowding meant they had to mve from 4 to gate 8 – better for us as no walk required across a very wet ramp area.

Boarded on time, a/c only had a few empty seats and left stand 5 minutes early. A/c had been vacating on rwy 14, but this had changed to 32. Plenty of legroom and the leather seats are a nice touch.

Strong crosswinds meant an interesting take off! Climbed rapidly then the engines reduced power significantly and the plane jolted. I suspect we were close to 250kts, but had not cleared 10,000 ft hence the rapid deceleration!

Direct routing over The Wash, Great Yarmouth, Amsterdam, Dresden, into Prague. Flight time just 1 hour 45 min. Weather fine in Prague but cold – -4 deg C at 8pm.

Enjoyed 3 days in Prague (beer 50p a pint, food v cheap!!)

Return flight was 15.40 on Wednesday. Arrived just over 2 hours before departure. Checked in and went to departure lounge – excellent viewing over the whole runway. CSA 737s, Dash 8s, ATRs, SAS 737s, Swiss 146.

By 15.15 we were all on board and we left stand at 15.30. Same routing as trip out, but 160mph headwind meant slower progress. I had a window seat and saw more aircraft close up than ever before including Emirates A330, BA 757, KLM 737, plus another 6 or 7 a/c which were further away.

Return flight was 2 hours and we landed on rway 32 at Leeds – needless to say the strong crosswinds were still there – gusting to 35 kts. A couple of hours later winds of over 60 kts were being recorded!!

A problem with the APU meant ground power was required so there was a slight delay in disembarking.

All in all an excellent trip and I would recommend Jet 2. Now looking at a trip to Valencia with them, but that means a trip over the Pennines to MAN.