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Taken 25 June 2006 from Belfast, Northern Ireland (Harbour Airport) - BHD to London (Stansted) - STN

My first trip with Air Berlin was a fantastic experience and one I shall be repeating!

First of all it was a brilliant idea for the airline to start operating out of BHD to London, I was getting really sick of having only the choice of 4 low cost airlines to fly to London from Northern Ireland. I would usually use Ryanair from Derry to STN, sometimes EZY/BD/BE. So when Air Berlin started an advertising campaign for Belfast-Stansted I couldn't resist!

There website is very easy to use, I got my return flight for £54 return! booked 3 months beforehand.

I arrived at check in and Belfast (George Best!) City Airport 1.5 hours brfore departure. There was a small queue at the AB desks, the airline uses Aviance for its handling at the airport. The agent asked if I wanted a window or an aisle which I thought was such a lovely change to be asked!!! Long live assigned seating!

We had a 15 minute delay due to ATC restriction on the inbound aircraft, nothing to fret about. And now I was really excited about my first trip on the airline. Upon boarding, the friendly German crew are waiting with a tray of newspapers/magazines and Air Berlin sweets. Once at row 21 with a great view of the winglet the monitors were down showing aerial views of aircraft and playing music. All the announcements were in German and English, the crew were very friendly, professional and efficient. Take off on the great summers afternoon was spectacular over the water. The crew came around very quickly with the choice of a ham or cheese sandwich, they came in the very attractive NIKI packaging and were very tasty, a free drink followed! It really was a great change to fly on an airline that really puts effort into its service. Landing was smooth and a quick bus journey got me to the terminal!

My return journey was the exact same, fantastic, fast, and great value. Both sectors were on brand new Boeing 737-700's (D-ABBS / A-ABAB).