Thomas Cook new Airbus a321 MAN-AYT flight review

This was my first time on the new Thomas Cook a321 with sharklets, and I have to say I was rather impressed. The flight was TCX 2982 from MAN - AYT (Manchester to Antalya). When we arrived at the gate, it was to my surprise that we were flying on the new a321, G-TCDC, as there were three Thomas Cook a321 flight due out that morning, and only new a321 based at MAN.

As we boarded, we were greeted by the stewardess and shown where are seats were, like any other flight. The seats were very spacious and were very thin, aiding in a lot of legroom and also by the clever design of the seatback in front of you, as the pocket at the bottom of seat, that normally houses the safety cards and inflight magazines, was empty as they were housed where an IFE screen would be placed; so this means that nothing was in the way of your knees, so you have more legroom.

The flight was very quick to board and we departed the gate exactly on time. We then taxied out to RWY 23L, but stopped just before crossing RWY 23R to let a Singapore Airlines B777 300 land. Then when we continued we did a rolling take off that felt quite powerful but was actually quite quiet, must have been down to the new CFM engines.

As we took off, we climbed but hit slight air pockets, from the aircraft in front, so the smaller children were screaming. I thought the take off was quite smooth although other passengers disagreed with me afterwards. We did a long graduated right turn so we came back over the airfield, and we exited the clouds to a rather nice sunrise.

As I was busy taking photos of the sunrise, the TV screens popped out every 6 or so rows to some Thomas Cook advertising, which I have never experienced on a European flight, with really no need for it for such a short flight. About 5 minutes of this the screens showed the map of how far we had come and the route taken and were going to take, again I don't remember this on any other European airline. Then the screens continued to play the entertainment as shown in the guide on board.

Then the cabin crew came round with drinks and snacks, but as normal the prices were extortionate. So we bought a sandwich and drink from the airport.

The rest of the flight was uneventful, we made good time and we descended through the mountains, to land on RWY 18L at Antalya.

Overall this was a very good flight. Extremely good aircraft, and I would love to fly on this again.

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