I was thinking of going to Japan too. The Chinese carrier are a lot cheaper usually. BA was over £1500 return.
I came back on train. The early flight to Bristol is a summer only timing on Saturday, useful for getting down early doors.
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Flights you have been on
- Thread starter telstarbox
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I came back on train. The early flight to Bristol is a summer only timing on Saturday, useful for getting down early doors.
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TravelDream
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Yes, BA, JAL and ANA were all about £1500 or more. Air China £500 (£420 if I'd been willing to fly from Singapore coming back - a £160 detour, but a chance at visiting two places). Amazingly, the Chinese airlines often have competitive flight times despite connections as they fly over Russia (a no-no for some I guess).
Air China was 1/3 of that so it's a real no-brainer for me.
If you are considering, Japan is an incredible place to visit and is really not as expensive as some say. The economy has been at death's door for 30 years and the yen is weak. Hotels, eating out and attractions are surprisingly cheap coming from the UK despite the reputation.
I actually found the bus more comfortable on that route (despite this being a train forum :P) and generally recommend it unless reliant on a train connection.
Yes, I have been to Japan a while back now. KLM for under £500 return. I only seen the Tokyo area.
GRALISTAIR
Established Member
Well yesterday (August 27th 2026) was a horrendous weather day in a good chunk of the UK. Luton Airport Air Traffic control tower got damaged by rain and lightning and LTN was closed. I was on flight EZY612 Glasgow to Luton. Horrendous delays and eventually diverted to East Midlands. Aircraft registration was G-EZUK an A320. At least 12 aircraft were diverted there with others going to other airports such as STN. I ended up getting a bus to Derby railway station then Cross Country to Tamworth then an Avanti to Preston. The captain took pity on us (took well over 1 hour to deplane) and let some of us into the cockpit. Photo attached
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atillathehunn
Established Member
My around the world in Airbus A330s continues.
Edmonton - Amsterdam - KLM A332. Another smooth flight on a busy flight. The seats are pretty good, food not bad. Early landing at Schiphol, but immigration a mess.
Amsterdam - Istanbul- TK 332. Smooth flight on a busy flight. IFE not bad, and food good as usual. It was Turkish victory day, with many announcements about this. Long, long taxi in Istanbul.
Istanbul - Kabul - TK 332. I have done quite a number of connections at Istanbul, always involving long walks. For the first time ever, I arrived at the gate adjacent to my departure gate. Win-win. Empty flight on the retro liveried frame. Poor man's business class down the back and I slept most of the way. Lovely views in the morning on the way into Kabul. Immigration was smooth and the airport has in general got better over the years (painted over all the bullet holes from 2021). The new road from airport roundabout to Jalalabad road is a game changer. The usual 45 minute grind is now just 15 minutes.
Edmonton - Amsterdam - KLM A332. Another smooth flight on a busy flight. The seats are pretty good, food not bad. Early landing at Schiphol, but immigration a mess.
Amsterdam - Istanbul- TK 332. Smooth flight on a busy flight. IFE not bad, and food good as usual. It was Turkish victory day, with many announcements about this. Long, long taxi in Istanbul.
Istanbul - Kabul - TK 332. I have done quite a number of connections at Istanbul, always involving long walks. For the first time ever, I arrived at the gate adjacent to my departure gate. Win-win. Empty flight on the retro liveried frame. Poor man's business class down the back and I slept most of the way. Lovely views in the morning on the way into Kabul. Immigration was smooth and the airport has in general got better over the years (painted over all the bullet holes from 2021). The new road from airport roundabout to Jalalabad road is a game changer. The usual 45 minute grind is now just 15 minutes.
GRALISTAIR
Established Member
Impressive!
TravelDream
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Agree with @GRALISTAIR above. Incredibly impressive.
My flights are oh so vanilla in comparison. What's it like traveling to Afghanistan now?
GRALISTAIR
Established Member
Great flight today but interesting. First time I have flown Jet2. Manchester to Madeira. It was scheduled to be an A321 and I documented as such in flightmemory.com but captain told us the plane was stuck in Italy and to avoid incurring a very heavy delay used an available 737. This to me implies Jet2 crews are cross trained or they just used another crew. Anyway, new airport for me and thus new route (MAN-FNC) and new airline
Photo of the airport from the plane attached
Photo of the airport from the plane attached
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How was the landing at Funchal? Lively?
GRALISTAIR
Established Member
Westerly approach then banked around to south and landed on normal runway. I thought the landing was excellent. Not too windy and not a rough landing. I suggest it was manual and not autopilot.
A good friend went with him Mrs last year, and she’s a nervous flyer. Got there ok, but whilst waiting for their return flight they saw their plane come in, and do a go-around from almost 0 feet. Didn’t fill her with confidence!
GRALISTAIR
Established Member
My daughter’s relatively new father in law (and he and I now share a granddaughter) was a captain for Monarch for 27 years and he said FNC was definitely a challenge!
Spamcan81
Established Member
20/08/2026 Heathrow T5 to Arlanda T2 with BA. Straightforward flight but a 90 minutes faff getting through immigration on arrival
24/08/2026 Arlanda T2 to Heathrow T5, again with BA. An excellent steak for lunch prior to another straightforward flight. Early arrival and through border control in a flash. Bit of a long wait for luggage though.
24/08/2026 Arlanda T2 to Heathrow T5, again with BA. An excellent steak for lunch prior to another straightforward flight. Early arrival and through border control in a flash. Bit of a long wait for luggage though.
Larcombius
New Member
Only airport I have ever been on a plane that did an aborted take off. BA A321, lined up at the runway start, full power, and started accelerating but then just didn't get very fast and slowed down and pulled off at the far end. Captain said it was paperwork issue but I have a feeling that was something said to not worry passengers!
GRALISTAIR
Established Member
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Terry Tibbs
Member
Landings at Funchal are always manual, there are no facilities to conduct auto lands there. I doubt Jet2 have many (if any) crews trained on both Boeing and Airbus. It’s most likely the case that the standby aircraft available just happened to be a 737 at that time.
TravelDream
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Just to add from the above, it's not possible to do an autoland at Maderia so it would definitely have been manually flown.
Funchal's 05 has two options.
Two different RNP AR Approaches which sort of leave you close to the runway. They are approval required and require special training for crews and certification. I am not sure if Jet2 does this, but I doubt it.
Alternatively, an RNP approach or a VOR approach (the former a GPS type approach and the latter a more traditional navigational aid). They both leave you abeam the centre of the airport as a point called the missed approach point. They then require a visual maneuver to circle back around and land.
The autopilot could be left on for the two RNP AR approaches until quite late. For the traditional RNP and VOR approaches it would have to be disconnected prior to the missed approach point unless the crew 'downgraded' to more basic modes like heading select and perhaps vertical speed.
It is probably one of the most challenging approaches pilots to do in this part of the world - especially given how bad the weather can get and that most UK crews will very seldom do it.
Jet2 pilots are not rated on both the A320 and 737. It generally only happens on fleets which are very similar and have what's called a common type rating (e.g. A330/A340 and 787/777).
Cabin crew at Jet2 are generally rated on both though.
gabrielhj07
Established Member
I would imagine Jet2's crews are RNP trained, but was the aeroplane?
Terry Tibbs
Member
RNP and RNP AR are two different approach types. RNP is also a navigational standard which differs depending on the airspace. RNP 1 is a flight path accurate to 1 mile, RNP 10 is a flightpath accurate to 10 miles and so on. An RNP approach can be flown by any modern airliner and pilot. RNP AR requires a much higher standard of navigational certainty (such as 0.1 of a mile of navigational certainty) along with alerting systems for flying the approach. RNP AR is the extra training but it also requires certification from several organisations such as national aviation authorities and operator approvals.
TravelDream
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@TerryTibbs has got there before me again, but, just to reiterate, an RNP and an RNP AR approach are two very different things.
For one, authorisiation is required for each approach. For example, an airline might have approval to fly the RNP AR approach into Salzburg's Runway 33, but not the RNP AR approaches into Madeira.
Dealing with regulators is costly and time consuming for airlines.
RNP AR approaches usually require specific training for crew members which makes it very time consuming and usually is only done if there is a real need. It also requires said crew to be available. Do you train all pilots at a small base for the weekly summer only flight to Madeira? Do you have a limited pool available and roster based off that?
There are a multitude of factors and it's very complex.
The 737 is more than capable of flying an RNP AR approach. However, that requires equipment to be operative which isn't always the case, and for its ANP (actual navigation performance) to meet the RNP (Required).
gabrielhj07
Established Member
In RNP AR approaches? Or Madeira specifically? I would imagine Jet2 train all their pilots in RNP AR, but whether they can use it in Madeira depends on their qualification (or not) for that airfield.
TravelDream
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I don't think you get it.
To conduct the Madeira RNP AR approach, Jet2 would require approval from both the UK CAA to conduct RNP AR approaches and from the Portuguese CAA to conduct the specific RNP AR approach in Madeira.
The RNP AR into Madeira would need special authorization and training. The RNP AR into Salzburg would need separate and different training and authorization. The RNP AR into Innsbruck, again, separate authorization and training.
That training being required by the relevant authority.
The CAA might also add additional conditions. E.g. both crew have flown to the airport in the previous 12 months or pilots will both have at least 1000 hours on type. Which means even with all the approvals and with the training done, they still might be able to fly the AR approach.
It also might mean that they do have all the approvals to fly the approach, but there is one of a myriad of reasons why they can't do it on that day.
The approval and training is very costly for the airline and they would need to be able to operationally justify it.
And, as I said above, you have the question on whether you train everyone or just a small group of pilots to operate it.