A few weekends ago I decided to take the new British Airways, operated by franchisee Sun Air (EZ), flight from Billund to Humberside in Lincolnshire, via Aalborg. This new route started in April, running a triangle BLL-AAL-HUY-BLL on Friday evenings, and BLL-HUY-AAL-BLL on Sundays. I believe this service is underwritten by Siemens to bring UK staff over to Aalborg for the working week. As Sun Air’s hub is in Billund, it operates as a triangle, with the BLL-AAL-BLL flights not available for individual purchase, and often being empty.
To get to Billund, I took the long standing EZ flight from LCY. BA (mainline) have also recently launched LHR-BLL flights, so it will be interesting to see how long the LCY services remain. Joining me for the weekend was fellow FTer jwhite9185, who took the LHR-BLL service.
My route, courtesy of gcmap.com
Check in was a bit slow, as I was trying to get my bag tagged through to HUY. After many attempts to print a through tag, they said it was only possible to send it to BLL, and I’d have to collect it and recheck it there. There were able to print me a BLL-HUY boarding pass through. For some reason, OLCI would not work on that sector.
Security was very slow, despite the low number of passengers in the hall. There was one manned empty scanner (fast track? I didn’t see any signs), and one with all the passengers, which was so backed up with bags needing hand searching, that no new bags could go through the scanner. It was a poor show, and one guy said he had been waiting for 25 minutes to have his bag looked at.
LCY Big Players: BA Cityflyer and Cityjet
After the delays at check in and security, I was only in the departure lounge for 5 minutes before a gate was announced. There is some extensive extension work going on, making the corridors a lot colder and noisier than normal.
I was expecting a bit of a wait at the gate, but I was immediately directed out to the aircraft where there were already a couple of people onboard.
The Dornier makes a nice change to Airbus and Boeing
Good forward views from row 2. The door would be kept open most of the flight, and there was someone on the jump seat (I guess friend of the crew, as the cabin was only around 50% full).
Seat 2A
Waiting for an inbound Avro to clear the runway, then off we went, 3 minutes early
Dornier Jet today. The prop version used to be used into LCY
Interestingly, the BA mainline BLL services were being advertised in the Sun Air magazine. Seems like they think there’s room for both BA and EZ to BLL. EZ didn’t last too long on the LCY-HAM route before it was taken over by BA Cityflyer.
Before breakfast, the single crew member came through with a tray of water and juice.
Breakfast today was quite lacklustre; a yoghurt, cold piece of bread, pot of jam, slice of cheese, butter and cream cheese. More bread was offered from the bread basket later, along with tea and coffee. Some cold cuts wouldn’t have gone amiss.
Not much happened during the flight, and before long we were descending into a very warm and sunny Billund.
My friend managed to get a photo as we approached.
The walk from the plane to immigration was a long one, taking in the entire length of the terminal. By the time I got to baggage reclaim, my bag was just being delivered.
I picked up my bag, and headed to the check in desks where I was meeting Mr. jwhite9185. Before he arrived, I had time to have my bag tagged to HUY, and be given a proper printed boarding pass. The agent mentioned (once I had convinced her that there was indeed a flight to HUY) that we were the only two booked on the flight.
Fast track was one of those that just filters you into the front of the normal queue, which was a bit awkward. After a quick perusal of the duty free, we headed for the King Amlet lounge, guarded by King Amlet himself.
A nice little airport model in the lounge
The lounge wasn’t too busy, and seating was spacious. F&B was reasonable, with some tasty pain au chocolate, as well as a decent DIY sandwich station. Wine and beer is self-serve, whilst harder stuff is on demand behind the counter.
“Humberside, via Aalb”
Heading down to the gate, we noticed the smallest plane in BA livery (OY-SVB, Jetstream 32) well parked blocking in this DAT A320
What would’ve happened of the brakes had jammed on the Jetstream or something? Seems a bizarre place to park given the massive amount of ramp space available.
The gate for our private flight
The Humberside Airport website advertising the new flight
This afternoon’s flight was another D328 Jet
With just two passengers, we were seated and belted in very quickly. The very affable captain cabin into the cabin, and said that he’d feel stupid using the PA system for just two of us, so decided to explain the flight in person. Details included the altitude, and the fact that it was fully booked ex-AAL, with one person in the jump seat. In retrospect we should have taken the initiative and asked to have a go in the jump seat – I’ve got a suspicion that he’d have said yes. Our cabin crew was also the one who had been at Sun Air the longest! (So most experienced I guess, with seniority #1!).
He left the door open the entire flight.
Service was a bottle of water only, but sufficient on a 20 minute hop on a baking hot day
Nice and peaceful!
A peek into the flight deck before descent
Gorgeous day for flying
Our ground stop time in AAL was around 20 minutes, enough time for the captain to go for a stroll and have a chat to the crew on the neighbouring Jetsream, and for the 30 odd new HUY bound pax to join us.
Ground crew feeling the heat
The jump seat passenger ready to go. Most of the other passengers knew each other (I guess from working together during the week), and the jump seater was certainly NOT Sun Air staff. Damn, I really should’ve tried to sit there!
The friendly northern banter of the other passengers was certainly quite different from the normal DYKWIA road warriors you hear on the LHR services! Lots of infrequent flyers, and few accustomed to free water, let alone EZ levels of service.
Over Aalborg City
Service started with a proper bar service this time. A full can of Coke Zero and a Bacardi, perfect for me, even better than Club Europe, plus water and pretzels.
This was followed by a meal tray with peppered salmon, an apple salad thing, crackers, bread and cheese. It was ok, but maybe EZ should tailor their catering more to English palates rather than Danish ones on routes where most people will be English.
Next was tea/coffee, plus a choice of Danish ice cream.
At the top of descent, there was a final quite bar round for those in need.
A greener approach than flying into LHR
We touched down early, and were soon inside the tiny terminal. Immigration was not very fast, but was friendly. Baggage delivery was swift.
The check in area
And the plane with some local info, taken from the bus stop
My friend and I had decided to night stop in Hull that evening, the other options being returning straight back down south, or going to Grimsby or S....horpe. The bus cost a fiver
I put myself up at the lovely Ibis Hull, which was perfectly acceptable for the night. I used a free hotels.com reward night, so only paid a few pounds.
I was pleased to discover that Hull is a fairly nice town – pretty little marina, and some excellent free museums. Hull is UK City of Culture 2017 after all!
At the Maritime Museum
And the excellent Transport Museum
After a good night out (at Northern prices!), and a pleasant museum morning, followed by fish and chips, it was onto the direct Hull Trains service to Kings Cross.
Great legroom in standard!
So all in all, it was a pleasant little trip. I might actually try and fly it again later in the summer, on a (probably) empty return leg (HUY-BLL) for another private jet experience, with the possibility of a jumpseat!