Originally Posted by
BAladdy
Guessing BACF have dropped FLR and NCE for S22 as no flights available to book
Yes both NCE and FLR were taken off sale for this summer just as I was about to book FLR in Sept which was annoying as there were plenty of Avios reward seats left.
They are both now listed for Ops > from 13/05/23
BACF are doing winter Ski flights SOU to CMF and SZG.
SOU-JMK-SOU June 2022
Have to say my recent travel on BACF from SOU to Mykonos and back in June was 99% perfect.
Car Park is excellent - book early for cheaper rates - short stay undercover is where Blue Badge can park and it is one minutes walk to check-in.
Sun morning 9am, although there were 5 or 6 flights leaving the Terminal and Dep lounge was ''almost empty'' - our JMK was 1005 STD.
No point arriving at SOU for flights much more than one hour before departure unless you want to go to the Business Lounge.
Ok, so the aircraft types at SOU are not big ((50-98 seats max) so folk waiting at the gates were all very civilised and nothing was crowded.
Check-in was a breeze (almost empty) although the young chap was brand new (Swissport) he had little customer experience, but we had a nice chat and he wants to go to NATS/ATC so we wished him all the best.
Security was a breeze, although enthusiastically thorough, and my 79yo sister was subjected to 2 or 3 full body scans, with frisking and repeated pat downs.
Seems they were obsessed she had metal on her...
Here's where SOU was a let down but they need to tweak this PDQ -
Flight boarded a bit close to time and we inwardly groaned it was a coaching gate -
The ground agents and coach driver then proceeded to want all 68 of us crammed on one bus...
We then had to wait on a very warm bus for the last 2 stragglers (as always) who got lost (how>?) in Duty Free.
Finally got to the Aircraft - first thing I saw (with my Airline Ops career eyes) was
only one set of steps and the fuel still connected up pumping on - You all know you cannot board Pax whilst refuelling unless you have 2 sets of steps.
Clocks ticking...Skipper looks flustered and runs down the front steps - forgets his Hi Viz then runs back up to get it on - Gets the fuel chit - runs back up steps and 5 mins later the CC give a thumbs up to board -
Boarding was chaotic with only one set of steps as folk down the back (say rows 13-25) should have been asked to board first.
Anyway we got on board - I sort of knew the No.1 and I said to her with glazed eyes
''2 sets of steps?'' - LOL, so she said back to me - It's already down on my flight report, and we now have lost our slot of course...Well I never...90 minutes the skipper said we now got to wait....Ugh.
About 35 minutes later luckily we got a new routing and slot to depart.
This Ground Handling issue is NOT the airlines fault but total lack of any idea at SOU Management and its Handling Agents how to turn around an aircraft.
None of the City flyers had 2 sets of steps on (both out and coming back at SOU), but there seemed plenty of ramp guys milling about and I saw spare sets of steps unused.
At Mykonos - also a tiny airport, 2 sets of steps are put on every aircraft arrival and is the norm; they are on the aircraft within a minute or 2 (also Swissport Handling)
We were back row 25 so we were off down the rear steps PDQ and a short walk across the road to Passports, so we were amongst the first off.
The SOU MD perhaps should pop out to JMK and see how they (and Swissport JMK) do it there;
although a small airport too, they handle much bigger planes there - up to 737-Max8, 757-200, and A321N.
Loads more leg room in rows 24 and 25 BTW.
Despite the boarding hiccups, the Airport, the Flight, the aircraft, the crew, the seat, nice free food and drinks, and excellent leg room was all superb and we landed
almost on time at a very windy and sunny Mykonos.
Spoke at length to the BACF crew during the flight - they have 2 CC on these flights with sometimes 8, 16 or often up to 32 Club Europe pax especially on the JMK, PMI and FAO flights - CE pax get Hot Meals both ways.
It is busy for them and of course non-stop hard work, but the Crews like these weekend SOU operations away from LCY, as they get SOU JER and PMI weekend night stops.
BACF also do Palma W patterns to both JER and GCI with the SOU-PMI so it is a big operation to crew - I saw 7 BA EMB's on the ground at SOU when we got back.
She also said the loads are really picking up on some routes - we had 8C/60Y outbound and 16C/70Y on the way back.
My pals went a week later to JMK and it was not busy at all - not even half full both ways.
Shame Florence has been canned this summer as that was a Def for me in Sept, but I shall likely use JMK again as I am off for a month's Greek Island Hopping in Sept.
All in all flying out and back to SOU with BACF was pretty awesome, despite ''steps-gate'' LOL.
Edit - Flybe start SOU - Toulon 24 July - 18 Sept