AN EXCEL-ENT RIDE

Back in October 2003 my girlfriend and I flew to Luxor,Eygpt with Excel Airways, I had only heard about this airline via a friend who said they were famed for their punctuality and comfort, this I found out to be was very accurate………

Excel Airways has only been flying since 1999, however don't be alarmed as it is one of many trading division's of the Excel Group and is fully bonded by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the Air Transport Organisers License (ATOL) 1999. The Excel Group consists of the following divisions……

Excel Aviation: the commercial selling division of the Excel company and its main interests are the bulk sale of its seats to many major Tour Operators

(The above info was researched from excelairways.com)

The main bases they fly from are Gatwick, Manchester and Newcastle, they aslo have some flights from regional airports for other tour operators.

As my partner is 6ft 5' we could reserve the seats with extra legroom via a telephone call to Excel's preflight department that deal with special requests such as champagne £20, chocolates £10, dietary requirements etc, these seats normally cost £30 extra but if you are over 6ft 4' then they will let you have these seats free of charge, they do ask that you give at least 3 months notice for these requests. Be warned though, these extra leg room seats are positioned next to emergency exits front, mid and rear of the place so the seat nearest the exit will not recline due to safety reasons and they are only given to able bodied people due to you having to be able to operate the exit door in the event of an emergency. They also offer pre-bookable seats so that groups are able to sit together this is at a cost of £10 per adult short haul or £15 on flights over 7 hours.

Our flight was due to depart Gatwick at 14.10, check-in with Excel starts 3 hours before departure, we arrived at Gatwick about 10.30am to allow us time to drop our hire car off first, when we walked into the Terminal there was a row of 8 desks for Excel of which 6 were manned, the queue was quite long as their were about 3 different Excel flights checking in, however even though the queue was long it only took about 15 minutes to reach the front, they had Excel staff going through the queue pre checking tickets and passports so that any problems came to light before arriving at the desk, this I think was a good idea as it did bring to light some problems which were sorted out before they got to the front. The check-in staff at the counter were very professional and friendly ensuring that we were dealt with as quickly as possible without cutting corners. Full marks here!

We flew on a Boeing 737 which seated 189 passengers, my first impression of the aircraft was very good, seating was arranged 3-aisle-3 so it seemed quite spacious, the first thing that grabbed me was the infamous leather seats through out the aircraft, even the arm rests were leather and they smelt like real leather, the headrests had matching covers which went with the rest of the interior, the seats were dark blue, headrests were jade green and the cabin walls white ,it sounds worse than it is. Seat pitch, which is the distance between a row of seats (e.g., from the rear of the seat in front of you, measured to the same point on rear of the seat you are sitting in). Excel's seat pitch is 30" which when you compare it to: Air2000 29" Monarch 29" My Travel 29"
T.Cook 29" Britannia 28" Airtours 29"

Over head LCD screens drop down above you which will display the safety demo video, whilst the cabin crew do their last minute checks, they will also make sure that children and the elderly get a blanket first as they are limited on the aircraft, pillows were also as rare as rocking horse poo! Once airborne the crew then went about their chores…..

Entertainment:
The armrest contained your entertainment unit which consisted of about 12 channels broadcasting music such as jazz, classical, pop, rock or even a comedy channel, headphones were a bit pricey though £2.50. On our flight out they showed 2 new movies, I only expected one so that was a bonus, the return flight they only showed one though.
The children on our flight were well looked after by the cabin crew, they got a goodie bag of colouring stuff and burger's!
Excel also have an in-flight magazine which contains the normal info about the airline and articles on lifestyle, there is also a kids section to keep them amused.