Looks like I'm going to see a few more Ryanair aircraft droning over my house in future. In local radio reports on the new services I have not heard Faro mentioned as a destination.
Would have been interesting to see how they stacked up pricewise against Jet2, Monarch and Thomas Cook which are our available choices at present.
From what I've read on here about Ryanair from some disgruntled people, perhaps I'm not missing much!

Ryanair already fly from Manchester to Faro, but it would be nice if they flew to Lisbon too.
I asked the Easyjet staff at Man Airport if they would ever have a route to Faro and they said NO! (somewhat categorically)

Ryanair will be flying to Sicilly next year which is great news though.
As much as I dislike Ryanair, sometimes price wise its a necessary evil

I was a member of the "over my dead body" Ryanair lobby, but since Easyjet sold us out from Stansted, we've been forced to fly with Ryanair.

I have to say that if you stick within their anal luggage rules, they arent actually bad.
Their fares are lower....even with bolt ons
They have as much legroom as Easyjet, more than Thos Cook.
They are almost always on time.
.......... and if you treat these short 2 and a half hour flights as bus journeys rather than luxury travel experiences........they arent too bad.........
.......Or maybe we have just become anesthetized!

Thanks for putting me straight Tricky. I was getting confused with easyjet not flying to Faro. It's an age thing! Of course Ryanair go to Faro from Manchester, I've seen their flight details on the destination boards often enough.
Like Bruce W. says, we treat the short flight like a bus journey. Bacon sandwich and coffee in the airport, packet of crisps and a can of cola on board. Jet2 'no frills' Boeing quite adequate for the journey. No TV screens, no headphone sockets, but i-Pods/i-Pads/DVD players have taken care of that requirement.
Used loyalty points last month to obtain one outbound flight free. So up to now Jet2 fits the bill for us.

Bruce Wallis wrote:I was a member of the "over my dead body" Ryanair lobby, but since Easyjet sold us out from Stansted, we've been forced to fly with Ryanair.

I have to say that if you stick within their anal luggage rules, they arent actually bad.
Their fares are lower....even with bolt ons
They have as much legroom as Easyjet, more than Thos Cook.
They are almost always on time.
.......... and if you treat these short 2 and a half hour flights as bus journeys rather than luxury travel experiences........they arent too bad.........
.......Or maybe we have just become anesthetized!

We used Ryanair for our return leg from Faro to Dublin in October, and I agree with you they aren't too bad at all. Probably biggest gripe I would have is the behaviour of other passengers, some of whom appeared spend their time in the boarding queue looking for a opportunity to jump those in front of them. example: we boarded using gate 56, and while waiting for passengers to disembark from aircraft that just arrived a few of our queue sidled up on the left trying to gain an advantage - didn't work. Then when we were called to the actual boarding gate a few tried to join the back of the priority boarding but the chap sent them back too. Then when we were going down the escalator to the aircraft others started 'running' past us and using the steps 2/3 at a time. you would think that there was not a seat for them on the aircraft. AFAIK Ryanair are one of the very few who do no overbook any aircraft. Cabin crew were excellent and the lead guy actually got a round of applause on landing in Dublin for his good humour and funny comments.

The thing that really iritates me about Ryanair, is that the Manchester to Faro flights always have half an hour added onto the arriving times,
since when does it take 3 and a half hours to get to Faro? This is so they can sound the horn and say they arrived early

I can assure you Tricky, they are not the only Airline to do that.

tricky wrote:The thing that really iritates me about Ryanair, is that the Manchester to Faro flights always have half an hour added onto the arriving times,
since when does it take 3 and a half hours to get to Faro? This is so they can sound the horn and say they arrived early

Just in case they get lost

Jet2 also hedge their bets. They give flight time of 3 hours from Manchester. The average I have found is around 2 hours, 30 min. Never ever known it take 3 hours. Pilot always makes a point of announcing we have arrived earlier than planned. I suppose it makes for good PR.
Having said that, I remember one October a few years ago when arrived through low dark clouds and torrential rain. We didn't make the customary turn along the coastline to the airport, but headed straight out to sea and did a few circuits 'til the weather improved and then headed back to land. I suspect that was the one time when three hours may have applied.

HampshireRich wrote:

tricky wrote:The thing that really iritates me about Ryanair, is that the Manchester to Faro flights always have half an hour added onto the arriving times,
since when does it take 3 and a half hours to get to Faro? This is so they can sound the horn and say they arrived early

Just in case they get lost

You may jest Rich, but......

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/nort ... 857962.stm

TomUK wrote:........ Pilot always makes a point of announcing we have arrived earlier than planned. I suppose it makes for good PR.

on my last flight they had got rid of that Scottish guy .......

Its all about published punctuality tables for the airlines.

It's the same on the railways...the rail journey from Norwich to London has gone from 1 hour 50 minutes to 2 hours 10....and surprise surprise Anglian railways boast 85% reliability!!