Review of Ryanair flight from Glasgow to Malaga in Economy

Prestwick Airport Experience

Prestwick Airport is not the largest nor busiest airport in Scotland or the United Kingdom, but it provides the community of Ayrshire a handful of holiday routes from an airport closer to home. Ryanair offers the only scheduled passenger services as of December 2025 serving Malaga, Alicante, Lanzarote, and Tenerife South year round as well as seasonal routes to Barcelona, Faro, Gran Canaria, Murcia, Palma De Mallorca, and Pisa.

The check-in area at Prestwick Airport is fairly sized but it was deserted at 4 in the morning as our flight to Malaga was the first one of the morning at 05:45, followed by a second flight to Alicante at 07:15.

After dropping off my baggage I headed for security, which to my surprise had no queue and was very efficient. At security there were maybe about 5 or 6 people, and it was also nice to see that there was a nice wee Christmas tree.

The airside area of the airport isn't the biggest but is adequate for the 550,000 passengers that passed through the airport last year. It features a WHSmith which is fairly priced in comparison to other airports in the UK. There is also a Bar & Kitchen which was busy this morning, the prices in there weren't that bad either.

Eventually it was time to start boarding FR8818 to Malaga. The gates here at Prestwick are arranged into 1 long corridor from 
Gates 2 through 8. Today we would be boarding from Gate 7 at the very end.

Ryanair FR8818 (PIK-AGP)

Our Boeing 737-800 for today's flight was to be operated by EI-ENI, this aircraft was delivered to Ryanair in January 2011. It received the Split-Scimitar Winglet upgrade sometime in between late 2024 and early 2025. This aircraft was retro-fitted with the Boeing Sky Interior which is featured on all Boeing 737-800's delivered to Ryanair since early 2016.

I took my place in Seat 3F on the right side of the aircraft, overlooking the engine and wing.

We left the stand for an On-time departure from Prestwick Airport. We made the brief taxi to Runway 12 Taking off in an easterly direction following the TRN2L departure after which we turned to the South and headed toward Malaga. Unfortunately the night conditions weren't ideal for taking good photos.

We watched the sunrise over the Bay of Biscay at 08:00 local time, about 1 hour 15 minutes after departure.

The time passed pretty quickly and we started our arrival in Malaga Airport, on our way down I caught a glimpse of the beautiful mountains in Andalusia and the coast off Fuengirola.

We landed into Malaga on Runway 31 about 30 minutes ahead of schedule at 09:45 local time. After arrival we made the taxi over to the main passenger terminal, parking at Stand 24 with a total flight time of 3 hours and 5 minutes.

As per usual on most Ryanair flights you disembark via stairs, but who am I to complain in this weather? Before heading inside the terminal building I took a few last photos of our 14 year old Boeing 737-800.

Passport control at Malaga Airport didn't take long, and it took something like 20 minutes for the suitcases to reach the baggage belt. After that were a variety of Car Rental companies, but in today's case we would be stuck with the bus.