At an airport famous for its harrowing arrival experience. I had assumed the departure would be somewhat mundane, at least by comparison. I couldn't of been more wrong. Join me on one of the first Ryanair flights to Manchester from Madeira on the aptly named FR77/FR7 flights (If you know you know).

We arrived at the airport around about 2 hours before departure but were unable to go through security due to boarding being suspended. This happens when the weather is bad and flights start getting diverted. it's a fairly sensible idea that means only passenger's who's planes have actually landed are able to go airside. Once our aircraft landed security took less than 2 minutes and we were quite happy to be airside with about 45 minutes to go before departure. This is where things started to go wrong.

The main knock on effect of the suspended boarding process was that on this day pretty much all non-schengen flights ended up arriving about the same time meaning the queue for passport control was immense. And with only 2 agents for Non-EU passports, it was absolute chaos. I have to give some sympathy to the staff trying to help people but Funchal Airport really need to give them more suppprt and organise these things better. We were still in the queue when our scheduled departure time came and went. Luckily so were a good chunk of the passengers on our flight so they didn't go without us 😂😂.

We eventually boarded around 30 minutes later and we pushed not long after 1pm. The takeoff out of Funchal was possibly the best I've ever had. Strong gusty winds, windshear reported, wet runway and a heavy aircraft all came together to provide my first takeoff at full non-derated TOGA power. Usually around 98.7/99% N1. The noise and the power was immense as we got airborne off Runway 05. Big thanks to Rudi for filming the departure!

Once at cruise it was a fairly uneventful flight with not much to sea. I opted to order a cold chicken and roasted vegetable ciabatta with a hot chocolate which despite appearance, was really tasty and not dry at all, the hot chocolate itself was really good too! After a spot of turbulence we began our descent and landing into a cloudy Manchester landed a little over 30 minutes late, not bad seen as it was an hour when we left. On arrival we parked at T3 and the whole arrival experience through there was really efficient. It was concerning to see the amount of abandoned luggage at the airport from previous days of hefty delays but our bag came through after about 10 minutes.

So overall, Funchal Airport aside this was a great experience. I cannot fault Ryanair in any way, especially given their choice to wait and not offload us! The old seats in this older cabin provide good legroom and decent comfort on these longer sectors, the food onboard was decent and well priced, the crew were great and really friendly, there was always someone present for the entire 3 and a bit hours. Finally the ground experience in Manchester was really easy and provided a positive end to what was an amazing few days away!

AIRLINE: Ryanair
AIRCRAFT: Boeing 737-8AS
REG: EI-EKP
AGE: 12.2 Years
SEAT: 7F
ROUTE: FNC/LPMA - MAN/EGCC
FLIGHT NO: FR77
CALLSIGN: RYR4EM
STD: 12:20 ATD: 13:10
STA: 16:10 ATA: 16:43
BLOCK TIME: 03:33
FLIGHT TIME: 03:19
CRUISE: 36,000ft (FL360)
DEP RWY: 05
ARR RWY: 23R

TIME STAMPS:
00:00 - Arriving at the airport
00:23 - Landside views
01:38 - Chaos at passport control
01:48 - Boarding and cabin overview
03:40 - Push back and engine start
08:30 - Taxi and backtrack
12:10 - TAKEOFF Runway 05
14:00 - Views of the island on departure
14:30 - Climbing to cruise
15:19 - Cruise and Inflight Service
17:17 - Starting our approach
26:10 - LANDING Runway 23R
27:20 - Runway vacated and taxi to stand
30:07 - Terminal 3 arrival experience


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