After a night in Dublin – the inbound leg with Aer Lingus, and you can read the trip report by clicking here -, the plan was to return to Italy with Ryanair by flying their 737 MAX.

Since Ryanair is basing a load of MAXs in their Bergamo base, their largest operation in Italy, I booked an itinerary from Dublin to Cologne and from Cologne to Bergamo. The first flight would be in the 737-800 NG, so it would be a cool comparison from one hop to the next.

FR8035 DUB-CGN

Anyway, I arrived at the bus stop at Dublin Airport with some time to spare. Because I’m a non-UE passport holder and I’d be re-entering the Schengen area, they needed to clear my visa, so obviously my boarding pass was printed free of charge at the counter.

It honestly feels weird to have an airport-printed Ryanair boarding pass, and that’s definitely one that I’ll keep in my memorabilia collection.

So the bus stop was in Terminal 2 – the one I had arrived through the previous evening -, and then walking to the other terminal could be done through a walkway inside the terminal building.

In fact, both terminals are also integrated on the airside, which makes everything so much easier.

I was afraid that Dublin’s Terminal 1 would be crappy as it serves mainly the low-cost carriers, but it was well structured, and even legacy carriers like Lufthansa operate there. So much so that the airport’s only McDonald’s is located there.

Because Dublin is where Ryanair comes from, they even have a dedicated check-in position there. It just felt so premium for Ryanair’s standards.

But the line dividers with Ryanair’s ancient old logo were there to remind you that was still a low-cost carrier.

The Ryanair agent that printed my boarding pass was so lovely it was a shame I didn’t write down her name to file a compliment via their Twitter DMs.

Anyway, in one or two minutes my visa was cleared, she waved «obrigado» to me and there I went to the safety screening, which was also lighting fast.

After a long walk through the terminal, I was facing the 737-800 that would take me to Germany that afternoon.

According to Planespotters.net, EI-DHO was delivered, brand new, to Ryanair in October 2005, operating to the ULCC ever since.

I liked that this side of the terminal had no boarding bridges, although the gates lead you onto the aircraft since Ryanair is too cheap to pay for boarding bridge fees.

Soon boarding was called, and we walked towards our plane.

This time, I had been seated over the wing.

The load for this flight was not particularly high, and at 13h27 – eight minutes before scheduled departure – doors were closed.

At 13h33 taxi towards the active runway started, and took-off took place nine minutes later. In a couple of minutes we had passed the cloud layer that covered Dublin.

Because the flight was not full, the flight attendants allowed me to take an empty row up ahead of the aircraft.

Despite its 16 years old, EI-DHO looked like new, sporting Ryanair’s new interior. Much better than that miserable old interior, with the thick seats. It just looks so much fresher and modern.

The space for the legs is alright, though I’m not tall anyway. As I always say, there’s really not much differentiation from airline to airline these days.

Though naturally, the cabin had that older look and feel, since it’s not a Sky Interior 737. Nothing unforgivable anyway, just tough luck.

To eat, I bought the 10 euro combo of a hot sandwich, coffee, and Pringles. The sandwich was great, as always.

The bathroom in Ryanair’s 737s, though, feels smaller every time I fly them. If Mr. O’Leary said he wanted to charge people to use the toilets, I think they’ll charge people not to use them in the near future.

On duty-free service, I also bought a 10 euro Ryanair 737 MAX model, since I was moving to a new house and I wanted some nice decoration there. The model actually looks cool and realistic – especially considering the even cooler price tag.

I enjoyed the rest of the flight by reading the book I had brought and at 14h54 (Germany time, an hour ahead of Dublin) we started descending towards Cologne.

EI-DHO made a soft landing in Cologne Airport at 16h07, 18 minutes before schedule.

Deboarding took place using the ladder, and we then went into the border control, which took some twenty minutes.

I went to the check-in area to explore the airport a little bit, but because it was quite boring, I went back to the airside to check the duty-free stores and the cafeterias, since the layover would be six hours long.

I didn’t imagine Eurowings was such a big deal in Cologne. But that’s Lufthansa Group’s commercial strategy in the main airports of Germany outside of Frankfurt and Munich; to use Eurowings and their lower unit cost instead of Lufthansa.

My flight was the last one of the night in the Schengen area, so flash forward to the boarding hour and the airport was almost desertic at that time of the night.

Much surprisingly, amongst the passengers, I observed there were plenty of businesspeople. I’m quite sure that going from a company that was proud to be crappy to one that also cares about its customers with the «Always Getting Better» program is important in that process.

Two passengers I spoke to didn’t even bother that the airline of their flight was Ryanair – they had just booked because of the well scheduled time and the cheaper fare (they had bought the tickets on eDreams, something the airline doesn’t like very much). The airline is the sole carrier between Cologne and Bergamo, currently doing 11 weekly runs between both cities.

FR5532 CGN-BGY

I was monitoring the inbound flight on FlightRadar24 and was relieved to see that my flight would, indeed, be operated by the MAX.

9H-VUK was delivered to Malta Air – the airline that operates Ryanair-branded flights in Italy, fully owned by Ryanair Group – the month before, so few times I had flown such a new plane before.

And how cool would be to see the MAX from up close? Boarding was announced at 22h32 and we were cleared to walk towards the aircraft at 22h38.

 

The MAX that Ryanair operates is the 8200 variant, which is a -8 MAX with an additional emergency exit; reshufflings of the galleys and toilets allow, in theory, for the plane to accommodate incredible 210 seats according to Boeing – Ryanair’s 737-800s carry 189 -, but the airline ultimately opted for a 197 seat configuration.

The retractile boarding stairs at the front-door remain.

My seat, 14F, was in the middle of the aircraft, and I opted for boarding from the rear door.

Overall, if it wasn’t for the additional emergency exit, you would hardly notice this was a MAX. Ryanair kept the same seats it uses in the 737-800NGs, and also uses the standard Sky Interior cabin, which has larger overhead bins and a much better lighting system.

At 22h49 boarding was completed, with doors closed nine minutes later at 22h58, three minutes after schedule.

Pushback started at 23h03 and after a long taxi to the active runway, at 23h19 Uniform Kilo’s engines roared through the runway, easily leaving Cologne behind.

Well, it was more a meow than a roar, actually; it was the most silent jet I had ever flown, even though I was just by the engine’s side.

For dinner, I asked for a combo of lasagne, Pringles, and some coffee – as I would spend the night in Bergamo Airport before taking the train back home.

In 15 minutes I had it on my tray table.

And the lasagne was wonderful, although a plastic knife would have helped to get through it. It didn’t have that airplane food taste and I’ll definitely try it again soon.

The flight was once again not full – 160 passengers occupied the 197 seats of the MAX, but still, the FAs had to rush, since the airborne time was not long. There was time for duty-free again, nevertheless.

Also, there was time, for a visit to the toilet. If you compare this one with the photo of my previous flight, the difference is noticeable – to the better. A good illumination really makes the difference.

At 23h53 9H-VUK started a quite shaky descent into Bergamo, so I returned to my seat.

Compared to my previous flight, the larger windows and better illumination make the difference. However, as far as lighting goes, this is also something you can see in their Sky Interior 737-800NGs anyway.

Nevertheless, at 00h17 we did a very smooth landing, finishing a very interesting journey in Ryanair’s 737 MAX.

Final Remarks

I really like flying Ryanair. With that said, there wasn’t much difference from the experience in their 737 NGs from their 737 MAX – which is not something necessarily bad.

Their buy-on-board selection is immense and tasty, their flights are generally on time, and most importantly, their fares are low, which ultimately for me and for most is the most important attribute.

So as far as the MAX goes, ultimately the only change on that experience is that the passengers flying in it will be guaranteed to fly a Sky Interior cabin, which is something good, as the difference between my two flights shows; but in any case, nobody decides not to fly because of the lighting of an aircraft.

But definitely, the nickname «Gamechanger» derives from Ryanair’s own economic gains from the aircraft, not from the passenger experience, which, as far as I’ve experienced, remain solid and consistent as ever. Thankfully.