TRIP REPORT- Flybe Embraer 175- Belfast City to Manchester- A NIGHTMARE FLIGHT!

On the 30th December 2016 we flew with Flybe from Belfast City to Manchester onboard flight BE487. This turned into one hell of a stressful and tiresome night and flight!

After arriving at George Best Belfast City airport in plenty of time and with a very simple, automatic check in process we were through security and into the departure lounges in no time.
However on first look of the departure boards i could see that our flight had a 15 minute delay and was scheduled to depart at 20:40.

Looking at the departure board you can see that there was also, much longer, delays on other flybe flights such as the earlier Manchester flight that had over a 2 hour delay and as you can imagine there were some very unhappy passengers.

My flight then received a further two delays, one saying we were scheduled to depart at 21:35 and then the next saying we had a STD of 22:35.

The delays had been caused by fog in the south of England which had caused many Flybe flights to divert, causing knock on delays to the schedule.

To add to the annoyance, the shops closed around 20:30 which meant there was only the main eating hall to get food. Having saying that, Flybe did provide 5 pound food vouchers per passenger to be used in the food hall. I made full use of this and grabbed myself a bite to eat.

The flight then received a further delay, being put back to 23:25. At this point we were the last flight of the night to depart, and the terminal was empty ( bar the passengers from our flight). I was just hoping that our flight was not going to be cancelled as a few other Flybe flights had been, and after speaking to a dispatcher we were told that it would have been 5 days before they could have flown us home if our flight was cancelled as everything was fully booked.

Thankfully this was not the case and finally just before 11pm our aircraft arrived. Our flight was operated by G-FBJB, a y year old embraer 175.

At 11:20 we commenced boarding which was a massive relief. Once onboard we finally pushed back just after 11:35. We then taxied to runway 22.

Once airborne, the flight time was just under 40 minutes which meant we were going to arrive at Manchester 3 hours late.

At 12:10am we touched down on runway 23R at Manchester, however although at my final destination, the delays were to continue.

Once landed, we taxied towards terminal 2 at Manchester which at the time i thought wasn't right as Flybe depart from terminal 3. The reason for this that was that we were put on stand 61, which is a remote stand, unfortunately the other side of the airport in comparison to terminal 3. Then once on stand, although we had buses waiting, there were no steps to disembark, and it was a further 7 minutes before the steps turned up and we were able to leave.

We were then bussed to terminal 3 where the wait then started. 55 minutes it took for our bags to arrive! 55 minutes! This is not acceptable at Manchester and although the early hours meant reduced staff, there was no reason for the bags taking so long. All bags were were supposed to be 'due before 00:45' but it was a further 25 minutes after this that the bags arrived.

All in all this was not a great flight experience. I am fully aware that the delay could not have been helped by Flybe and that weather often causes unavoidable delays however with the repeated delay it was not a flight experience that i will want to remember!

Quick info:
Airline: Flybe
Aircraft: Embraer 175
Registration: G-FBJB
Route: Belfast City (BHD) - Manchester (MAN)
Flight number: BE4158
Seat: 7A

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