Verona to Manchester-Thomsonfly, *detailed*

After an amazing weeks stay in Riva Del Garda, it was time to return home. We saw the news about the terror threat so we contacted our Thomson rep who told us that we were ony allowed to carry a walltet, travel documents, medication, house keys etc. I wasn’t too bothered because the flight is only about 2 hours but then I realised that we would’nt be allowed to take headphones on for the entertainment or a camera for pics. My sister was annoyed because she wanted to take her books to read on the plane.

The pick up coach arrived at 0915 to take us down to Verona Airport for the 1305 flight. The coach took the lakeside road route because the motorway was serverly congested meaning the journey would take about 1 hour longer, but the route provided spectacular views of Lake Garda.

We arrived at Verona Airport at 1150 and we were told our flight had an hour delay. Check in was taking place in the new, Terminal B, which, to be honest, is a shed with about 10 check in desks, but it does have air con. There were 5 desks open for our flight but the queues were still huge. After a half an hour wait, we got checked in at desk 27. We were given seats 31DEF, 39CD
and 41CD. These seats were less than ideal because 41 is the final row so it would have no recline, row 31 had no recline and was next to the toilets and the rest wee aisle seats. My mum can’t sit the upright no recline seats because it hurts her back and shoulder and my dad sometimes gets bad backs.

We then proceeded to Terminal A which was extremely busy. Check In desks were crammed into every space. We got to security, the staff were being very vigilant with evryone on British Flights. I beeped the metal detactor but I went through again and it was fine. It was now 1240, so we looked at the gate 04, where our flight was due to leave, and it was heaving. There were no seats available, and in Verona, to get to the gate you have to pass the passport check point so you can’t leave once your inside. We decided to buy some drinks and drink them before the flight as no liquids allowed. We finally went through passport control at about 1320 and the flight was boarding.

Flight: TOM5202 Verona LIPX to Manchester EGCC
Gate: 04
Seats: 31DEF, 39CD, 41CD
STD: 1305
ATD: 1430
STA: 1425
ATA: 1525
Flight Time: 1 hour 55 mins
Aircraft: Boeing 757-204 G-BYAP “John Lennon” cn 27237
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1044689/M/
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0968910/M/

We got onto the bus and we were bussed to the aircraft, G-BYAP “John Lennon”. We boarded via the rear entrance, dorr 2L was being used aswell. The crew pointed our seats, I took 41D, I was very annoyed about not having a window seat. My sister sat opposite at 41C, My mum and Dad in 39C/D and my grandad, aunt and uncle were in 31D/E/F. I saw that my seat did have recline, and so I swapped with my mum, to 39C, so she could recline without bothering anyone. Boarding ended at 1350, but bags were still being loaded. We could hear the thuds below us of bags being loaded.The captain introduced himself and said he apologised for the delay but it was due to the slow security at Manchester. He said we should be off in 15mins. He told us that we would takeoff from Runway 22, and we would have great views of Sirmione in Lake Garda. We were given an estimated flight time of 1hour 57mins.

I noticed a lot of people had brought books and some even had drinks! This got me quite angry as we had followed the restrictions and it seemed other people didn’t care about safety.

At 1415, the baggage had been loaded and engines were started, the one thing about the 757 is that you can hear the engines very clearly. A safety video was shown as we taxied up the long parralel taxiway to the end of the runway. At 1430, we lined up and thrust was slowly applied, followed by full takeoff thrust which threw everyone back in their seats. It looked like the nose was in the air all the way down the ruway because it feels like you’re raised up due to the power. After a quick roll we were airbone, performing the steep 757 style climb. We made a right 360 degree turn over the airport for noise noise abatement. We flew over Lake Garda, and then the ground became obsucred with cloud. Ocassionaly the odd mountain would peak out above the clouds. The seat belt seigns were turned off after about 10 mins into the climb and power was decreased slightly. We were going to be cruising at 33000ft according to Captain later on in the flight. The crew came round with headphones, I wasn’t going to bother purchasing them but my mum bought me some. It was a waste of money anyway becaus the Tv programmes hadn’t changed since my return flight with Thomsonfly fro Dubrovnik in early June. They were: creature comforts, My dads the Prime minster, Everybody Loves Raymond and the Catehrine Tate show.

A hot meal was served to us, which was: Chicken cobbler with vegetables, a strawberry short cake, a bread bun and a carton of orange juice. the chicken cobbler was very tasty, aswell as the shortcake. The crew then came round with tea and coffe. I got tea and swapped it for my dads orange juice.

A bar service commence after the meal. I visited the toilet down by row 31 where my other relatives were sat. The seats didn’t look ideal beacsue they were next to all the toilets and had no recline.

After the bar service, a quick duty free service commenced,I asked if I could purachse a model but the stewardess said they ahd ran out. The captain spoke to us again announcing the descent had commenced and we were overflying Nottingham, where we would fly east near liverpool and land on Manchester’s North Easterly runway, so I new it would be my first 06L/R landing. Like the outbound flight, the speedbrakes seemed to be used throughout the descent. The crew prepared the cabin for landing. I could see Manchester Airport out of the window across the aisle, we were flying at a right angle to it. We then banked right to align us with the runway (06R), I think we were on the ILS, because it is like the same approach on FS9. There was a clunk of landing gear and full flaps. We glided down and began a flare over the threshold. We touched downquite smoothly. Again, like the outbound flight, idle reverse thrust was used as the runway is so long.
We touched down at 1425 and the temperature was 18C announce the purser. We taxied to runway 06L holding point as abmi A320 was taking off and a Thomas Cook 752 was holding short for its turn. We waited for the TCX 752 before cossing the runway. A man a few rows down was about to get up and he reached out and opened the overhead stowage bin when the seat belt signs were clearly still on. It annoys me when people get up when the the crew have told yopu about 5 times to remain seated.

We taxied into to stand 210 at Termianl 2. I saw a VS 747 sat on the remote apron, I think it must have been the Orlando flight delayed due to the Terror threats. We disembarked via door 2L onto the airbridge and headed to passport control. Another couple of flights had also landed, an XLA and FCA. We got to baggage reclaim and thankfully, we got all our bags, but still after a 30 min wait. We went through to arrivals, where we said good bye to my aunt and uncle. My dad thought it would be best if he went to the Premier Carpark and picked us up from the terminal because there was a long queue for premier and it would have been a bother carrying 6 pieces of lugage onto a tiny bus. After another 30 min wait, we were leaving Manchester for home.

And thus ends my trip report. I thought Thomsonfly did a good job, nothing brilliant, just a pleasant flight. The delay wasn’t the airlines fault and the crew were very friendly. I give them 8/10 on this flight.

Now I’ve got 2 weeks until I shall be leaving for Manchester again for my trip to Mallorca with Monarch and Thomas Cook! 🙂 I’ll try to get photos on those flights. It’ll also be a nice relief to use terminal 1 for a change as for the past 3 years and 5 flights have been to terminal 2!

Thanks for reading!