Review of Aer Lingus flight from Cork to London in Economy

The best way to see Ireland in a limited amount of time was to fly into Belfast or Dublin (ended up being Dublin in this case) and then out of Cork, or less ideally Shannon, to see a bit more of the south. Aer Lingus and Ryanair both offered a few flights throughout the day, but this was the latest out of Cork, which helped maximise time in Ireland. It was more expensive than Ryanair, at €75 plus €25 for an extra 20kg checked bag, but not terribly more, and I did want to fly Aer Lingus anyway.

Welcome to Cork International Airport.

ORK was a quiet little airport. When I arrived, only the Aer Lingus check in was active and there was no one in line.

On all those signs about the carry ons: Aer Lingus offers a free 10kg check in, so they were offering people to check in their carry ons for free.

The check in staff were all quite friendly and happy to hear that Ireland had been a nice trip. They were fairly relaxed but it was still fast.
Cork arrivals tonight.

Security was upstairs.

Before the security area there was an interesting map of routes from Cork. Some unexpected destinations but it's surpirsingly poorly connected to many of the major European capitals. Cut off in this picture are İzmir, Rhodes, and another Turkish city that was blanked out, maybe Antalya.

Security was also quick and the agents were friendly enough there as well. It was a very chill second largest airport in the country.
There was no immigration, though there was in Dublin on arrival from Heathrow. But it makes sense as the land border with the UK in Northern Ireland is totally open. All that meant I had a lot of extra time, though, with not much to do as there was a single Ryanair plane on the ground and a handful of shops. The gate area was also small and quiet (one more gate not pictured).

Departures. No gate yet, it was still too early.

That was assigned right when the plane arrived from London. It was named St Canera / Conaire, registered EI-NSF, an A320neo of two years.

They made a few preliminary announcements for boarding but it took a while to start. It was meant to be by zone, but that didn't really happen.

The gate and cabin crew were friendly.
The lights made the rather basic cabin feel a bit more welcoming.

The seats were of course still not great, though. No recline and tiny tray tables.

But there was a USB-A and -C port at each seat, which was pretty good.

Lights and air vents.

The seatback pocket had a menu/shopping magazine and safety card. There was also a sickness bag but it had something in it, maybe a dirty tissue (I didn't look too closely).

There are pictures of the whole menu in my Heathrow-Dublin review if anyone's actually interested.
Someone didn't like the chips, apparently.

By the way, almost all the remaining pictures will be of outside as not much happened during the flight.
At first, after pushing back, you could see pretty much nothing outside, though it brightened significantly on takeoff. 

It had been raining below but during the ascent between the layers of clouds the higher ones weren't showering.

And after breaking through all the clouds, it was actually sunny.

The buy on board service started a bit later than on the last flight and the crew took orders before taking the cart through. I didn't get anything, there was nothing free, and I didn't get up during the flight so I have no pictures of the cabin.
There was no view of the sea or the ground for most of the flight because of the clouds, but there was a nice sunset.

Before long the crew began preparing for descent into London with rubbish collection etc. They were quite friendly during that and overall throughout the flight.
The clouds ended very abruptly just out of Heathrow.

Quite similar to a morning flying out of Prague on a SWISS A220 last year.

Welcome back to London!

There were lots of international and intercontinental planes, mainly Asian and African heavies, but it was bad light for photos especially since we passed by quickly.

Not long till the gate.

We were out of the plane soon too.

For once in Heathrow it was a short walk from the gate. There was no immigration (which is how it should be, unlike in Dublin). I got to the baggage claim area before a belt was even assigned though it took barely a minute for that.
The belt was stationary with a few Air China bags present - it was being shared with a Beijing-Capital flight and Singapore Airlines - but Cork bags came within a few minutes as well.
And with a look at the arrivals, I'll conclude this flight report. The next one will be the beginning of a very roundabout journey to Australia.

Thanks for reading.