Tirana Airport at some early hour of the day, this was the first of my two flights of the day, this one to Athens and then one from there to Bucharest.
The airport wasn’t very busy yet, I had arrived at something like 04:30 for my flight 06:50 flight.
Very pretty, the view after I got through security, which was prompt and efficient. The queueing arrangement was a little erratic, but I’m too broad-shouldered for the woman trying to push past me in the queue to have any chance of success. This enabled the queueing system to work in the way that I expected it to.
My flight was the fifth of the day.
Into the airport lounge, which I had already visited a few months ago.
There were only a couple of people in the lounge.
Which meant that I had clear access to the food and drink…
Ajvar, tomatoes, olives, gherkins, this is what I call a breakfast…
And that’s burek on the left, this surprised and delighted me. They did have some other hot food elements for breakfast, but I didn’t engage with those.
After a few coffees, orange juices, breads, muffins and a heap of ajvar, it was time to leave the lounge, slightly unwillingly to be honest.
Ready to board, the aircraft is HA-LVP which isn’t an aircraft I’ve been on even though it’s usually used on Warsaw routes.
The big hills in the background…..
Wizz Air crew are routinely brilliant, but they couldn’t do anything about the passengers on board if I’m being honest. Some passengers decided that they didn’t like Wizz Air’s seating system, so they decided that they’d sit where they liked. The passengers were rearranged back to how Wizz Air liked it, so we were ready to take off.
At the end of the flight, the crew tried initially to stop several passengers standing up as the aircraft was landing, but after temporary success, several passengers ignored them and meandered around the aircraft whilst it was still taxiing. The aircraft then stopped quite abruptly and an elderly passenger promptly fell over and another passenger opened the overhead locker and a bag fell on his head.
Oh good, a bus to the terminal.
Nice views. Well, relatively, I’m standing on the tarmac of an airport.
I’ve only just got a new passport and all the other countries have carefully stamped it in order near the front. But, not Athens, they shoved their stamp on page 28 and it was so heavy in ink it promptly covered the opposite page. Sub-optimal.
Some of the new machines that will be brought into action soon. The queueing system at Athens Airport was chaotic and the staff weren’t really sure what to do, it felt a disorganised mess. Being British, I like a system where people queue in order, this system was widely rejected by other passengers on the flight. Fortunately, I didn’t care, I was in no rush as I was staying at the airport for another flight around three and a half hours later.
But, back to Wizz Air, this was a £9 flight and I was once again delighted at their operational efficiencies. Organised, efficient and their systems only became derailed because passengers did whatever they wanted and that included far too much applause on landing which I felt was far too raucous.