How long's a Ryanair minute?

[Self Loading Freight]

Based on my experience at Dublin yesterday evening, a Ryanair minute lasts around four hundred seconds.

I know everywhere was fogged in yesterday evening. I know how things fall apart on a hard day, especially towards the end of a schedule. But why did we kept being told that we would probably be going in around 15 minutes when in the end we left at 23:00 instead of our scheduled 20:40? If there's one way to turn a 737-full of pax into a mob, it's consistently raising and dashing their hopes with no particular explanation.

Lots of other oddities about that flight -- why did we have to change a/c for one with 'better equipment to get into Luton'? Aren't all Ryanair's 737's up to CAT whateveritis? Bit of a shame on those routes if not... fog's not exactly unknown in Northern Europe. We didn't make it in the end; had to divert to Stansted after 45 minutes hanging around and at least one aborted approach, but I can't say I can imagine visibility at Luton being any *worse* than what we finally -- and most robustly -- plonked out of at Stansted. And Dublin Airport, Ryanair and doubtless other agencies conspired to make sure that there was no way of buying any food or hot drinks for most of our experiences... there were a lot of very unhappy people finally getting off the a/c at 01:20 this morning. Including this particular SLF.

And bloody Luton has still only got one de-icing rig -- that delayed us more than an hour on the outward flight.

Whinge, moan, gripe. It's not the fact we were all horrendously late -- I know that the cabin and flight crew were in the same boat (and top marks to all of 'em, for keeping going brightly under considerable duress). It's that some very simple, very minor things could have been done to militate against the slings and arrows of outrageous metrology, but they weren't.

R

[100LL]

What do you want for a fiver

[FlapsOne]

I know that some of your questions have already been answered on the rumours forum but to answer your question about whether all 737s are capable of landing in foggy conditions, you should know the following:

some aeroplanes are equipped to operate to category 1 conditions only (550 m visibility), others to category 2 conditions (300 m visibility), and others to category 3 (a, b, or c) conditions at reducing visibilities less than 200 m.

I believe that Ryanair operate several older Boeing 737-200 series aircraft which are only capable of category 2 operations. They also have some newer 737-800 aircraft which are certainly equipped for category 3 conditions.

My guess is that you started your flight in a - 200, and changed at Stansted airport into a-800 aircraft.

on another point, when Low visibility procedures in operation at an airport ATC are required to slow down the flow of traffic and therefore it is often necessary for aircraft to enter holding patterns waiting for a clearance to commence an approach. It can often be the case that they Pilots do not know how long they must wait a holding pattern before they receive a clearance to continue. We would always like to be able to tell the passengers exactly how long it will be before landing, but sadly, we don't always know ourselves.

[Self Loading Freight]

Flapsone--

We were in a -200 all the way from Dublin to Stansted. We never made it to Luton...

What made it particularly frustrating was that I had radios and GPS in my carry-on luggage that would have made hanging around far more interesting... but of course, all thoroughly against the rules so nothing to do but watch some of the other pax getting increasingly convinced they were All Going To Die.

R