I had the choice of paying about £4 for a convenient bus service from the hotel to the airport or traipsing two miles along lanes. Anyway, here we are.
The view over to Faro on my walk. It was far too hot, but since it was about 08:00 in the morning, it wasn’t yet at its hottest.
Safely at the delights of Faro Airport.
The airport felt busy, with more non-Schengen flights than Schengen, which is unusual for a European airport. It seems though that there are more passengers to the UK and Ireland than every other destination added together, presenting a challenge when you have to have two segregated areas of the airport.
Ryanair has recently complained to the Portuguese Government about border control delays at Faro, Lisbon and Porto, with long delays now being commonplace. As mentioned, Faro has a lot of flights to the UK and this is clearly placing a burden on the airport authorities and the volume of passengers was high. It took me 38 minutes to get from the outside of the terminal to airside and through border control, which is longer than I’d normally expect but it doesn’t feel at all unreasonable although others have waited much longer recently. As I’m ever cautious, I had allowed an extra hour in case of delay, but this must be traumatic for anyone who is late for their flight. You can pay for premium security, but I’m not sure if that follows through to border control which is where the longer wait it.
I’ve been fortunate over the last year with my Priority Pass card, I’ve never been refused or had to wait more than a few minutes, but I did suspect I’d struggle today. However, I timed it well to ensure that I could charge devices and have a quick breakfast in the lounge. The pasteis de nata was delicious, the coffee was rich, there were endless crisps and they had a small bottle of awful Portuguese beer, so I was happy.
At the gate and there’s an odd glass wall here which I assume is a throwback to a previous airport set-up, but it has created something of a pinch-point now. There wasn’t much seating downstairs, but there was a fair amount tucked away upstairs.
I wasn’t surprised that we needed to get on buses to the aircraft, nearly every departure seemed to be a bus gate.
There are several airlines lined up in the background, with at least five of them being back to the UK.
The boarding process, and aircraft G-WUND is the same one that took me out to Faro a couple of days ago.
As the seating Gods had given me a window seat, I thought I’d take a photo of the views over southern Portugal.
Flying over northern Spain.
As I had taken photos of other bits of coastline, here’s the UK and it was much cloudier which pleased me. I’ve had enough of the heat to last me the rest of the year.
There’s London in the background with all of its grey glory and I accept that I’m not likely to win any photographic competitions with this effort. The flight was, yet again, comfortable and organised, with everything being clean and tidy. The crew were friendly, the pilots made clear announcements and the service was just efficient. And no-one applauded when the aircraft landed, so there’s another win.
Back at Gatwick Airport and the security process was faultless with no queue at all, although I’ve rarely had any problems at Gatwick in the past. All told, a very lovely flight and another bargain for £8.99.