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Taken March 2005 from Belfast, Northern Ireland (Harbour Airport) - BHD to Liverpool, England (Speke Airport) - LPL

This weekend trip to visit family in the north west of england was our first experience of Flybe's new service from Belfast City to Liverpool.

We opted for this route because it offered real value for money when compared with similar flight times on BA to Manchester from Belfast City, bmibaby to Manchester from Belfast International and easyJet to Liverpool from Belfast International.

Our outward flight at 7.05 on Friday morning was virtually empty - I would estimate 20 passengers at most on a Dash 8 400 series.

The cabin crew were extremely pleasant and the service was exactly as usually offered on Flybe. The flight also left very punctually.

Unfortunately, our approach to Liverpool was quite rough due to strong crosswinds and both ourselves and the couple across the aisle in row 20 had to hold on to the rear of the seats in front to steady ourselves during the last few minutes of the flight when the motion was quite violent.

Our return flight on Sunday night was due to depart at 19.55 and we arrived at check-in at 18.00 intending to have a meal before boarding the aircraft.

However, at this stage we were informed the flight would not be departing until 22.15.

This was confirmed both on the monitors and by an announcement so we were left with more than four hours to kill.

Under the new airline passenger compensation rules we felt we might be entitled to at least refreshment vouchers.

However, when we asked at the Flybe desk in the check-in area the lady on duty firstly told us it was an air traffic control problem so no financial compensation would be forthcoming.

She then asked about refreshment vouchers, but these were not forthcoming either as our delay was 'just under two hours?'

Remember we were supposed to leave at 19.55 and were not now scheduled to leave until 22.15. Slightly wonky maths there.

However, we did thank our lucky stars our flight was operating at all when we witnessed the would be passengers from a fully checked in easyJet flight to Geneva which was cancelled at the last moment retrieving their luggage and forming a long queue at the airline's desk in an attempt to rebook.

Our inbound aircraft finally landed at 22.10 and we took off back to Belfast at 22.35. On the aircraft we were simply told the delay had occurred on the grounds of safety.

Questions about its cause were not always welcome and I heard one cabin crew member tell a passenger: "We want to get home too".

It was not particularly reassuring that after the door was closed and the captain told us we were just about to start up it had to be opened again to allow a member of the flight deck crew to go on to the tarmac.

No explanation was offered as to why this occurred.

After a smooth flight we finally landed back at Belfast City around 23.10.