Corfu Airport
I wonder if anyone can explain this...
I recently flew from Corfu airport to Gatwick on a Thomson 737. Corfu airport has a single runway and is a relatively small airport and can only accommodate smaller narrow body aircraft (due to a very short runway).
While waiting for my flight in the departure lounge, I witnessed a Thomas Cook A321 and a Thomson 737 (my aircraft) land on runway 35 in the northerly direction. I then saw the Thomas Cook A321 complete its turn around and take off on runway 17, in the southerly direction. This was about 45 minutes after it landed, so I thought maybe that the airport had changed to using the southerly runway in the time the aircraft had been on the ground.
I then boarded my flight and as we taxied for departure, I expected that we would line up and depart on runway 17 in the southerly direction like the previous aircraft that departed about 15 minutes before. However we departed on runway 35 in the northerly direction, the same runway that both of the aircraft landed on...
I wonder if anyone can explain this? The Thomas Cook aircraft was travelling to Manchester, so a northerly departure would have been beneficial, like our aircraft that was travelling to Gatwick...
Thanks in advance