Manchester – Funchal – Manchester [First Choice Airways]

Hello!

Introduction
well we booked this back in February soon after we got back from Dublin, there was four of us travelling, myself, my mother, father and my sister. we’ve been to Madeira previously and fell in love with the place, fabulous views, such history, and its very unspoilt, not a lot of people know about the island, which makes it such a great destination!

Airline – First Choice Airways
Flight Number – FCA2104
Date – Monday 13th August 2007
From – Manchester International (EGCC/MAN)
To – Funchal (LPMA/FNC)
Seats – 06C/D/E/F
Scheduled Departure – 06:00
Actual Departure – 06:13
Scheduled Arrival – 10:00
Actual Arrival – 09:43
Flight Load – Full Flight 180 Passengers 7 Crew
Aircraft – Airbus A320-214 G-OOAR
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0855696/L/
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1075122/L/
Departure Gate – 210
Arrival Gate – A06
Departure Runway – 23R
Arrival Runway – 05
Route – Manchester, Liverpool, Dublin, Cork, Atlantic Routing, Porto Santo and Funchal

The Flight
we awoke at around 02:30 in the morning in some excitement as we was on our way to Funchal, to spend a week in the sun! as the weather in Manchester was in a world of its own! we headed over to Terminal 2 around 03:30 where due to recent terrorism at Glasgow, we got dropped off at the short stay car park at terminal 2 a some what 5 minute walk and a lift away from the departures, we got into the terminal building and it was rather busy for this time in the morning, mostly First Choice Airways and Thomsonfly was checking in for the early morning flights, we used the new self service check-ins Manchester has now got, they are the green boxes scattered across the terminals, I found this to be so much easier! after we checked ourselves in we made our way over the “Express Check – in Bag Drop” where a women was sat on her own at the end of a row of empty check-in desks, we got greeted by “have you checked in?” well the reply “yes”, I thought keep it plain and simple for 4am on a Monday morning! anyway our bags were gone and we made our way to security as I thought it would get busier later on, so we did, I found security this time wasn’t as tight as previous occasions, I wasn’t asked to remove anything except my belt, whether in the past I was asked to remove my shoes, belt, jumper/cardigan etc, anyway our flight was the first flight of a brand new week, we hadn’t yet got a gate, and I found we actually didn’t get a gate until around 5:20, we had suppose to have started boarding at around 05:10, but I couldn’t see this happening. We got gate 210, Where somewhat 180 passengers piled into the waiting area to board, at around 5:35 the first announcement was made, it being the pre-boarding announcement. At around 5:45 rows 15 and above were called forward for boarding, as we waited I was starting to think the flight wouldn’t leave on time, but then half way through at around 05:50 everyone else was called for boarding, we took our seats and then the captain made his announcement, the captain of this flight was probably the most informative captain I’ve had! he told us we would be pushing back on schedule and we would be heading to Liverpool onto Dublin and down to Cork and then a Atlantic routing down to Madeira. The doors closed at 05:56 I was amazed how quickly 180 passengers boarding. we pushed back exactly at 06:00,


we headed on down to runway 23R where a British Airways 767-300 arrived from New York, a Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-200 arrived in from Singapore, we lined up onto 23R and the engines spooled up for the departure,
we departed at exactly 06:13 heading on over west bound.

the cabin crew came around with a typical English breakfast first, then the drinks service then duty free then a final drinks service.
The movie Shrek The Third was our IFE with various TV Programmes to follow it.
the captain came on again explaining the routing and times etc, telling us, we was heading down to Cork at this point, only at 32,000ft as that’s what Shanwick cleared us for, also explaining we should be arriving into Funchal a little early, around 09:45 15 minutes ahead of schedule.
we hit a lot of strong turbulence, but didn’t really affect us, was rather fun watching the wings compete with it ha-ha!


at 09:20 we started our decent into Funchal, it started to cloud over as we so did, even though the captain had told us the weather would be clear skies with temperatures in there mid 20’s.

the captain then came on again, telling us a lot of information about Funchal Airport, like how the approach is a visual approach which only a captain can fly, with tricky manoeuvres due to high terrain, he then told us about half the runway being on “stilts” and the fact its such a small airport we would be using full reverse thrust as well as maximum brakes to slow us down. we then started to make the approach,





we touched down at 09:43 where we felt the full force of the landing brakes, we taxied off the runway and onto gate number 6, we then disembarked the aircraft and went to collect about bags!

Punctuality – 10/10
Cabin Crew – 9/10
Seats – 7/10
IFE – 6/10
Flight Overall – 9/10

Funchal
a beautiful place to relax for a week, where we stayed was like our own private villa, only 4 rooms in the apartment, very clean and just so quiet, was just relaxing, with stunning views of high mountainous areas surrounding us!

Return Flight

Airline – First Choice Airways
Flight Number – FCA2105
Date – Monday 20th August 2007
From – Funchal (LPMA/FNC)
To – Manchester International (EGCC/MAN)
Seats – 06E/F 07E/F
Scheduled Departure – 11:00
Actual Departure – 10:53
Scheduled Arrival – 14:50
Actual Arrival – 14:32
Flight Load – Full Flight 180 Passengers 7 Crew
Aircraft – Airbus A320-214 G-OOAR
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0855696/L/
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1075122/L/
Departure Gate – A06
Arrival Gate – 215
Departure Runway – 05
Arrival Runway – 05L
Route – Funchal, Porto Santo, North Of Porto, Santiago, Bay Of Biscay, Brest, Channel Islands, English Channel, Torquay, Wrexham, Liverpool and Manchester

So we awoke at 7am as the coach to take us to the airport was arriving at 08:30 so that gave us plenty of time to get final things ready before we left, we was blessed by some outstanding weather whilst in Madeira, clear blue skies with temperatures in the late 20’s, the coach came at around 08:35 and we had 2 more stops to make before we headed to the airport, at 09:05 we got to the airport where we was told to check-in at check in desks 29, 30 and 31 we got allocated 06E&F and 07E&F my mother and sister took row 7 whilst I took row 6 with my father, we went through security again simple screening, we did some duty free shopping, as you do, and then I headed up to the terrace where you get an outstanding view of the aircrafts, there was a few aircraft in already, Thomas Cook Belgium A320, SATA International A320, Transavia Boeing 737-800 and a TAP A319, about 10 minutes before 10am, our aircraft arrived I saw it was G-OOAR the outbound aircraft and would now be taking me home, we went through to gate 6 after a second passport check and waited at around 10:35 we started to board with no announcements everyone just piled forward, very unorganised I thought, as we walked along the apron to our aircraft it was quite a blustery day, we boarded where I took my seat. everyone seem to have boarded at around 10:45 again quite fast! the captain came on and told us our routing for the flight after departure it would be an immediate right turn heading 090 where we would climb on up to 34,000ft and onward to 36,000ft later on in flight, he explained he would be making the departure and the first officer would be flying us from then on, he also said there is a very strong headwind making our flight time 03:40 minutes so he said it would be good if we got away either on time or a little after. everyone seem to have taken there seats, but for some reason something didn’t seem right, it was just a feeling I had, and I don’t think I was the only person who felt it, the cabin crew member seem to be very anxious and confused at something, she then emerged at kind of shouted “is anyone travelling on there own?” about 6 people raised there hands as there was a Portuguese family who must of got on the flight at the minute and they had been separated by around 5 rows, it seemed the mother didn’t want to cause a fuss so the cabin attendant thanked the volunteers, the person sat next to my father explained that she got on last minuet as the flight had been overbooked and she was on standby for the flight, the women sat next to my mother behind us said that she has just had a bereavement so she had to get on the flight, the nervous feeling I felt seem to have gone when everyone was seated and the doors were closed and we started push back 10 minutes early! we taxied out to runway 05

and at 10:53 we departed 7 minutes early!
the take off was quite poor, due to the strong winds we was blown all over the runway, with the captain making his best efforts to keep the aircraft under control, we finally lifted off the ground and made the immediate right turn and we had already hit turbulence, we lost some altitude, and most of passengers shouted ” WHOOOOAAAAAAHHH ” like it was some rollercoaster, I found it quite fun, not had a windy take off for a while!
we headed on up to 34,000ft as the cabin crew came around with a drinks service, then a meal service consisting of “Beef in a Mustard sauce” which surprisingly was very nice! duty free came next then another drinks service shortly before our decent into Manchester, Spiderman 3 was the inbound film with again, various TV Programmes following it.

Just off the coast of Portugal I found this cargo ship

the first officer came on and told us that we would arriving into Manchester around 14:40 and we would now be landing on the North runway as the winds had changed in Manchester.
as we passed over the English Channel and the South-west of England we commenced our decent


the seat belt sign was turned on, and the cabin crew came to do the final checks for landing, the women sat in front of me had put her bag under her own seat and not the one in front so it was difficult to get my bag under there, then spotted by a cabin member, they asked to put the bag in the over head, I gave in and agreed but unfortunately my camera was in there! 😡 so I couldn’t take any photos!
well anyway, we made our approach into Manchester, through the very thick cloud over Manchester, and at 14:32 we made a rather hard landing onto runway 05L, we vacated the runway seconds later a PIA 777-200 had just landed following us to Terminal 2, An Emirates 777-300 was taxiing out for the afternoon departure to Dubai, so we had to take the long way around to get to the gate! we arrived onto gate 215 at 14:36 ending our holiday!

Punctuality – 10/10
Cabin Crew – 8/10
Seats – 7/10
IFE – 7/10
Flight Overall – 9/10

I found First Choice Airways to be an excellent airline, friendly staff, crew etc excellent punctuality on both flights, clean aircrafts with a vibrant turquoise interior, Overall an excellent airline!

Thank you for the time in reading!
comments are appreciated

Jon