Southampton has handled Britannia or Thomsonfly 757s regularly in the past; I think a Palma flight on a Saturday was operated in the Summer of 2004 or 2005?

DUS sounds like an excellent option on a Jet2 757, me and Paul have considered there before!

Hmmmm…. £43 return including taxes in August… might book it whether you guys go or not! Just need to find a cheap hotel!

I’m very interested in a DUS trip in August; I see that there’s no flight on a Sat so I assume that you’re looking at going on a Fri evening and returning Sun evening? Here’s some of the traffic to see there on a Saturday:

Delta B767(Only US carrier)
5 x LTU A330
5 x Turkish a/l B737, A321 & A330
14! x Onur Air, FLY air, Atlas, Inter a/l, Pegasus, Sun Express B737 & A321
Aeroflot Tu154 & A319
Pulkovo Tu-154, Siberia air B737, Carpatair S2000, Macedonian B737,
Air Via A320, JAT CRJ
Aegean B737
Emirates B777 & A330, Mahan Air A310, Egyptair A320,
Nouvelair A321, Tunisair B737, A320
Privatair A319

On a Sunday:

Yet more Turkish a/l B737 & A321
Another 14 x Onur Air, Corendon, Sky, Atlas, Pegasus etc
Nordic MD90
Aeroflot Tu 154 & A319 , Pulkovo Tu154, Ural TU154, Air Via A320, Jat CRJ
African Safari A310

What i meant about theair bridges its like a brand new airport using 757’s i wud of thought they would have one but i suppose thet could be in the improvment part

The lack of airbridges is nothing unusual; many busier airports don’t have any such as Bristol, Nottingham/EMA, Liverpool & Luton.

The terminal design at Doncaster/Sheffield could have 3 airbridges added quite easily though.

That’s the same 777 I’ve flown on 3 times; she seems to follow me around…gained a white nose since I flew on her last November though.

Unfortunately Zrh is not well served by low-cost carriers from the UK; cheapest fares for departing Fri am and returning Sun pm:

LHR £109 on BA
BHX £148 on KLM
MAN £124 on Swiss

I am definitely interested in a European trip; I have been to all the airports mentioned and done some spotting & photography. I’ve ranked each one against certain criteria; of course these are just my views but gives some idea:

Cost to get there/Choice of flights

1.Ams 2.Cgn 3.Dus 4.Zrh 5.Mad

Amsterdam clear winner owing to all the Easyjet, Jet2, BMIBaby & KLM flights available
Cologne quite cheap and served by Easyjet,HLX and Germanwings.
Dusseldorf should be possible @£60-80 note that Lufthansa now quite cheap.
Zurich should be possible @£100 on BA/SR but few loco options.
Madrid generally most expensive

Variety of Traffic

1.Ams 2.Mad 3.Dus 4. Zrh 5.Cgn

Largely depends on specific interests. Amsterdam good choice of long haul, European carriers and of course KLM base. Madrid good for South American carriers; some only fly here in Europe. Dusseldorf good for most German loco, Russian, East European and Turkish carriers. Not very good for Lufthansa though. Zurich has limited choice of traffic; Swissair base. Cologne good for German locos and cargo but few large a/c to be seen. (Very few long haul services)

Viewing facilities/Vantage points

1.Ams 2.Dus 3.Zrh 4.Cgn 5.Mad

Ams has most vantage points; Dus has best viewing gallery; Zrh has 2 galleries(but you can miss some traffic); Cgn has small gallery behind glass and afaik Mad has no gallery and not possible to see all the traffic movements.

I would suggest a visit to Dusseldorf and Cologne(50 mins apart by train) or maybe Dusseldorf and Munich. Munich has 2 viewing galleries and a good variety of traffic. Also large Lufthansa base. German internal flights also quite cheap.

I watched the programme with a neutral view ie. I have flown and would fly Ryanair again but I am not too impressed with their customer service. The incident that did suprise me was the captain’s comments like “the passengers paid nothing so shouldn’t expect anything”; this is complete rubbish. Firstly there is a basic standard of service that anyone can expect ie. if a flight is delayed 3 hours it’s not unreasonable to expect at least some soft drinks and communication with passengers regards a potential diversion airport. Additionally how does the pilot know they paid nothing? Does he know the exact price that every passenger paid?..I doubt it. I’ve travelled on Ryanair with people that have paid anything from 99p to £100 for the same flight. At the end of the day passengers will vote with their feet and Ryanair don’t seem to suffer despite these kind of reports.

I’ve flown on their 777s to New York and Tokyo; I always go for seats in row 10.(bulkhead) Seats A/B probably the best; IFE is very good on these a/c. Seats 11C/G have loads of legroom but your feet are likely to be caught by passengers in the aisle. There is another row further back (@31) just behind door no.3 but there’s no windows in this row. You should get 2 reasonable meals + snacks. I haven’t flown long haul on another carrier recently but the KLM product on the 777 is pretty good imo. Here’s a link to the seating plan..http://www.klm.com/travel/gb_en/images/Boeing%20777-200_tcm54-16406.pdf