And suddenly… it is that time of year again. I choose my favourites from my travels during the year. The first category is for the airlines I travelled with.
I used Pegasus for the first time, on flights from Edinburgh to Sabiha Gökçen Airport in Istanbul, and then from there to Chișinău in Moldova. My experience was mixed, but the negatives were a result of passenger behaviour as opposed to airline service.
Then came my first experience of Wizzair on their flight from Iași (in Romania) to Basel. I would rate it as entirely positive. The passengers behaved themselves.
I surrendered to the inevitability of flying with Ryanair, but escaped with only four of its flights. I think it has a monopoly on services between Edinburgh and Poland, which increases that inevitability factor. Ryanair took me to Kraków, and then back to Edinburgh from Gdańsk.
My other Ryanair experiences were between Edinburgh and Berlin.
When I took an overnight trip to Dublin in the summer my natural inclination was to fly with Aer Lingus. As it turned out, their prices were close enough to Ryanair’s and Aer Lingus got my money.
Eurowings between Edinburgh and Köln and Düsseldorf accounted for four of the year’s flights. I guess I have a soft spot, but is it for Germany or for Eurowings?
KLM took me to Amsterdam in the summer, en route to Utrecht and Maastricht. I always enjoyed travelling with KLM when I did a lot of business travel in the 1990s. I still do.
easyJet brought me back to Edinburgh from Geneva after my jaunt to Moldova and Romania. It was good too.
It has come down to a choice between Pegasus and Wizzair this year. The novelty factor has probably played a role. I have gone for Pegasus in spite of the family from hell in the row behind mine for 4 hours.
ⓒ iain taylor, 2025
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