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Taken October 2003 from Birmingham to Amsterdam

KLM Cityhopper (ex UK) have upgraded their on-board service since I last used them a year ago, and now sandwiches are served on each flight (a choice out of two types). Newspapers are also offered when you enter the aircraft - in theory.

According to the mini booklet in with the plastic cutlery packaging, Cityhopper offers alcoholic drinks for free, but I didn't see any being handed out (though both flights were fairly early in the day).

The flight out was a little late in being called. It took quite a while to board as the flight was full, and we had to wait for two latecomers. After this, push-back was fairly swift and we didn't have to wait long before we were up in the air.

The stewardesses were competent, but not particularly friendly, although it didn't seem to matter much as they didn't have much time to serve out food and drinks, and collect the rubbish before we were coming in to land.

Upon landing it took about fifteen minutes to taxi to the stand, for part of it at high speed. I have heard of a new runway at Amsterdam that is quite a distance from the airport buildings, and this must have been it.

On the return leg, which was again full, boarding was delayed for about ten minutes, but we were all seated by the departure time. While boarding, normally a member of the cabin crew welcomes you, but on this occasion the stewardess was paying us no attention and was chatting with who I assumed was the first officer, with the door to the cockpit wide open (I thought this wasn't allowed these days?). The free newspapers were behind the stewardess and so no-one could get at them.

We were unable to leave straight away, as there was some kind of problem with the baggage hold (the captain came on the intercom to explain it, but he had such a breathy voice that we could only catch the odd word here and there). I heard something about it being a full flight, and I think something about a chute breaking. This took about fifteen to twenty minutes to sort out.

Fortunately the runway this time was quite near to the terminal, and there was only a B747 in front of us, so we were airborne fairly quickly. The flight was uneventful, and service was as before - again a choice between two different types of sandwich and a drink.

We arrived at Birmingham about ten minutes late, having made up time during the flight.

Overall the on-board service felt a bit tired, and the Fokker 100 aircraft could do with a bit of a refurbishment, but they were a perfectly OK couple of flights, especially for such a short hop.