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Taken 18 January 2008 from Belfast, Northern Ireland (Harbour Airport) - BHD to Cork - ORK

Travelled to Cork with Aer Arann on a sale fare which was very reasonably priced. Check-in was a bit problematic, as the call centre had mis-spelt my surname. This seemed to annoy the check in staff. It took a few phone calls and another member of staff to fix. The flight was first delayed an hour, then brought back to the original time and then delayed again for half an hour. This was very confusing for all passengers. We then boarded from the same gate as another flight, that was going to London. You had to make sure your knew what plane to get on. The aircraft an ATR-72, was old, but reasonably maintained inside. Seat pitch was average, but seats were comfortable. Cabin crew were friendly, but did not seem to want to interact with passengers. A bit of a bumpy landing, but that’s kind of expected on a small plane. We got parked on a remote stand, but a bus waited to take us to arrivals.

On my return, the airport check in display, showed us what desk to use, but the information above the desk displayed a different city. I approached it anyway and I was checked-in for Belfast. Our flight was announced to be leaving on time, but many other flights were being cancelled or delayed. On boarding, we had to walk out to the plane, which was slightly unpleasant as it was raining heavy and very windy. The crew on this flight were very pleased to have us on board. They spent most of their time in the cabin speaking and joking with passengers. I think this helped to relax passengers as the whole flight was full of bumps, drops and bounces.

Overall a pleasant experience, some extra work needed on ground operations, as they didn’t run as smooth as the flight. I would travel again and hope they introduce some bigger jet aircraft.