XL Airways (previously Excel Airways) often operate our Lourdes flights, and in fact operated 16 flights to Lourdes over Easter.

My Stansted to Lourdes flight was booked on a 757, but ended up being on their 767-200.

The cabin crew were helpful with the children who had difficulty in boarding. It was helpful to have the twin aisles of the 767 to get people on quickly. The cabin itself, although clean, was showing its age (19 years old) and its Britannia heritage. The seats themselves, although leather, are extremely narrow. I was in the front row so leg room was OK.

We were served a warm (but small) breakfast followed by a mini cup of coffee. One sip and it had gone.

We arrived into Lourdes 45 minutes late, which was not bad and nothing to complain about.

On the way home, our 757 had to wait 30 minutes to get a stand before we could start boarding. Not XL's fault, but it did mean we left an hour late. Again the crew were very helpful in getting the children boarded and sat down. This flight was more crowded as we had the 757.

Our aircraft, although slightly newer than the 767, looked very tatty. There were bits of tape everywhere, patches of paint covering up scratches, different coloured arm rests, TV monitors that weren't working, and some of the paneling above my head were loose and came away during the flight, which was a bit worrying.

We were served Shepherds Pie, which was odd for a 10am flight, but it was OK. XL had not loaded any coffee cups, so we had to make do with the orange juice carton we had on our tray.

We arrived at STN 45 minutes late and were off loaded quickly.

Overall, a fairly satisfactory flight. XL do need to look at the interiors of their older aircraft, which look very badly maintained. They also need to pay attention to detail - how can you forget to load coffee cups?? Luckily, both flights had friendly crew, which helps in making up for XL's pretty poor inflight service and poorly maintained aircraft.