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Taken January 2005 from Tees Side - MME to Mahon (Menorca), Balearic Islands - MAH

I have classed this flight as a Britannia Airways flight even though they plugged it as "Thomsonfly"

Boarded a Swedish registered Boeing 737-800 at 06:30 ready for departure at 07:10, due to everyone being boarded so quick we pushed back and actually left the runway at 06:45, a full 25 minutes early. The aircraft was clean and comfortable for such a short flight. The crew were pleasant and polite. I was not expecting a 737 at all so it was a bit of a suprise since Britannia do not operarate the type, but had obvioulsy deemed it approprite to use a smaller aircraft on the routes out of Teesside as opposed to the 757's normally used. No meals were prebooked for the flight so we were sat towards the back section along with all the other non eating passengers. The crew did offer drinks and snacks twice and a gift service by which time we had begun our descent, time which had passed quickly due to the good inflight entertainment provided by 10 music channels and the general TV which was sit-coms etc.

We landed at Mahon, crossing the beautiful coastline just west of Binibeca (the sugarcube village) at 09:55 local time, after 2hrs 10 minutes in the air. Being 45 minutes early was a good bonus, however my case was one of the last off the belt even though it was Saturday, a far less busy day than the main airport day on Friday, it took an hour!

Returning the Following week saw us being called to gate at 11:15 local, 25 minutes ahead of the time shown on the board, bussed across to the same Swedish 737-800 which brough us out, the fantastic crew getting us seated and prepared for deprature, pushing back and leaving the sunny tarmac just five minutes early. Again no food was prebooked, but I did buy a sandwich for 3.50, they also have some meal deals where you can buy a selection of drinks and snacks for a certain ammount. We were advised to buy anything we needed for the whole flight from the first service so that the crew could commence the Meal service and then gift shop before they had to seal bars for landing. Some great TV was shown and I listened to the music with the headsets I had bought on the flight out at 2.00. We landed at Teesside at 13:35 local, which was 25 minutes ahead of schedule so all round start to finsih it was great value. The seating was fine on this flight, but I would not like to travel on a longer flight in it - much the same as any other UK charter carrier.