My wife and I bought our tickets in an easyJet sale at the ridiculously low price of £15.98 each, including tax, for the return journey.

We travelled north on the first flight of the day on an unseasonably cold mid March Tuesday. The aircraft was late arriving from Newcastle with the inbound because, the captain later told us, that airport had been closed for ninety minutes early that morning to clear the runway of snow.

Bristol Airport is bursting at the seams and its new terminal, completed only six years ago, already struggles to cope with passenger numbers at times. As a short-term measure they are making ad hoc improvements prior to getting planning permission to almost double the capacity permanently.

The result is that parts of the terminal building resemble a building site, but, in fairness, this was not too much of a pain – it just looked unpleasant.

The Boeing 737-700 was almost full and eventually landed at Newcastle around fifty minutes behind schedule following a 48-minute flight. The cabin crew members seemed competent although not especially friendly. The flight deck gave minimal information. The seats were fine although on such a short flight this is not much of a consideration.

We only came out of the murk as we turned over the coast to approach the westerly runway at Newcastle, and we could see that most of the snow had gone as the slightly rising temperature and drizzle took their toll (thankfully!).

The return in the evening on another 737-700 was much the same as the morning. Flight was even more full (only three or four empty seats spotted) and the cabin crew was much the same as earlier in outlook. The flight deck was even less forthcoming: a brief greeting with a promise to speak again in the cruise that never materialised. Perhaps the short 42-minute sector militated against it as I suppose the cruise was almost non-existent.

Again we had no visual contact with the ground until we were over north Bristol on the down-wind leg.

In summary, this was an incredible bargain.