Thread by @NewcastleFlyer, Good morning! This morning I am flying for the first time in [...]

Good morning! This morning I am flying for the first time in 4 months. The plan for today is to fly on EasyJet’s A320NEO (hopefully) from Gatwick to Amsterdam, then to fly back to Heathrow onboard the British Airways 787! Come join me and I will link this flight in a thread below

I’m currently in my taxi en route to Gatwick Airport

I’ve made it to the better of the two Gatwick terminals

North Terminal is very quiet this morning. No queue at all at security which has a unique, well designed layout. – bei North Terminal

Departures is deserted. My flight departs at 07:00 and only one flight departs before mine (06:30 to Málaga) – bei North Terminal

I think @Gatwick_Airport needs to reboot their departure board – bei North Terminal

Only Starbucks is open for breakfast. Boots, Duty Free and WHSmith are also available

The Málaga flight has just had its gate announced and the departure lounge has completely emptied of all but 15-20 passengers. I reckon that flight must be at least 80% full.

Deserted corridors of Gatwick – bei North Terminal

Here is my aircraft for this morning’s flight. It is a 0.8 year old A320NEO registration G-UZLG. It is notable for being the 9000th A320 aircraft ever delivered. It is my third A320NEO and first NEO with EasyJet. – bei North Terminal

My gate today is 564

Here is a better view of my A320NEO

Boarding is being done by rows from back to front (20-31 first, then 10-19, then 1-9). I’m 18F.

So while they scanned our boarding passes in some sort of order we were then held in a pen at the top of airbridge. When boarding commenced a free for all ensued as normal.

The @easyJet NEOs are very smart – bei North Terminal

The wing view would be great from 18F, if it wasn’t for the rain

EasyJet have done away with all none essential seat pocket items, so only the safety card remains

We will very soon be pushing back so I will post more updates after landing in Amsterdam. For those wishing to track I am #U28869 on G-UZLG.

We took off on time from R26L at Gatwick After taxiing past a huge number of stored aircraft

It was fantastic to be back on a plane after so long #itsalwayssunnyabovetheclouds

We flew above fairly low cloud for the short 45 minute flight to AMS at 23,000 feet

I was fortunate enough to be able to see another aircraft from mine, showing that traffic levels must be rising

Most of the flight was fairly uneventful and not particularly noteworthy. The only noticeable difference was the lack of usual BOB food. Today is the first day where BOB catering has returned to EasyJet but only mezze and tapas snack boxes were available and payment was cashless.

It was then time to land into @Schiphol and we did so on the Polderbaan (R18R) which resulted in a 12 minute taxi to my stand at the low cost H Gates used mainly by EasyJet and Ryanair. Disembarkation was remarkably orderly and was done in order of rows with both doors being used

The load on this morning’s flight was probably about 30%

Now to walk from the H gates to the D Gates for my connecting flight on the BA 787-8 back to Heathrow! – bei Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS)

This is a very, very early lunch and my first sit-in McDonalds since February when I was in Istanbul – bei McDonald's

My aircraft for the flight back to Heathrow is now on its way to collect me!

Schiphol is very quiet but all the shops are open unlike at Gatwick

My aircraft is here! I’m flying onboard 7.1 year old Boeing 787-8 G-ZBJD. This will be my fourth 787 flight and my first on the 787-8 and any Dreamliner with BA. – bei Gate D10

Boarding on this flight is being done from back to front like on my earlier EasyJet flight. Passengers with priority boarding are not getting that on this flight.

I’m now at my seat 32A which is just behind the third set of doors