Home > British Airways Citiexpress > 2005 > Review

Taken January 2005 from Belfast, Northern Ireland (Harbour Airport) - BHD to Manchester, England (Ringway International Airport) - MAN

I flew from Belfast City to Manchester on the 08.35 flight on Thursday August 18, returning on the 17.15 service the same day.

As usual British Airways provided a hot breakfast on the outbound sector and a sandwich and bar service/tea and coffee on the return.

The morning flight took off about 10 minutes late, but managed to land more or less on time.

The DH8-300 series aircraft eventually stopped at a stand beside the gates used by the BA Manchester to Heathrow shuttle.

But as usual when this happens we had to be bussed across the tarmac to the infamous (among regular users of the route) Manchester Gate Three so we could all officially pass under the sign which says Northern Ireland arrivals and be viewed by an officer at the police checkpoint as we entered the airport.

Is this still really necessary? It would have been much more convenient to use the gate closest to the aircraft.

But then of course we would have missed the valuable exercise provided by the 10 minute walk from Gate Three to the baggage reclaim and arrivals area.

From the aircraft point of view I would have to say BA's DH8-300's are starting to look a little tired and could do with being smartened up internally.

Some of the seat upholstery was worn and on the outward flight in row five I sustained a slight cut when I put my elbow where the ashtray cover should have been only to find there was no ashtray cover - just the sharp metal edges.

The washroom on both flights was also looking a bit shabby.

All in all I think BA could do a little better on this front and I hope they will either smarten up these aircraft or replace them with EMB 145's which have a similar capacity.