The FAR NORTH of Great Britain - Eastern Airways (for Flybe), Aberdeen to Wick

Hello and welcome to another TripReport where it is a fantastic sunny afternoon here in Aberdeen

Scotland. I'm taking a novelty flight today. I'm flying with Fly B to the most northerly airport

on the British mainland. We're off to Wick. Enjoy the video. Aberdeen airport is only about five

miles from the city centre of Aberdeen and like me you're probably best off taking one of these

frequent and fast buses. They take about 20 minutes to get to the airport. The airport can

get really busy in my experience especially during the morning and evening peaks. However I was flying

in the middle of the day and it wasn't too busy. Flybees check-in area also includes these kiosks

where you can select a seat and print your boarding pass. There's a much needed and very

overdue terminal transformation project in progress at Aberdeen and when I passed through

it was still very much in progress. One of the most welcome developments of the terminal

transformation project is the addition of the Northern Lights Lounge. You can get in here as I

did with a priority pass or certain types of business class ticket. One of the things I liked

most about this lounge was the fact they had a decent food spread. Now that's not always the

case with third-party lounges and airports but it's certainly the case here. There's also a decent

range of teas and coffees and a selection of soft and hard drinks

One of my favourite features of any airport lounge has to be whether it has an apron or runway view

and the Northern Lights lounge certainly has one of those. There's lots of really interesting

spotting to do here at Aberdeen. There are plenty of oil and natural gas platforms off in the North

see not far away from here so there's lots of helicopter flights to and from

those oil and gas rigs. There are even some opportunities to spot some light

aircraft too. Today's flight is on a small Jetstream 41 aircraft and so it doesn't leave from one

of the larger gates at the front of the terminal. At the north end of the terminal are a few gates used by Eastern Airways who are actually

going to be operating this flight today on behalf of FlyBee Boarding is done through this strange corrugated iron structure and then straight out across the tarmac to the aircraft If you do have

a larger item of hand baggage it should go into the valet cart as displayed here

This British Aerospace Jetstream 41 is laid out in a 1-2 configuration which is pretty standard

for any aircraft of this size. Today I'd assigned myself seat 9A at the very back of

the aircraft on the left hand side. However, it soon became apparent that the flight was

not going to be full at all and so I moved to seat 10D on the right hand side of the aircraft

which is a double seat with a lot more space

For a small turboprop aircraft, the legroom on this Jetstream 41 was pretty good

There's also a seat back pocket for you to store anything you want to, a reasonably sized

tray table and a cup holder. Before take off, something I'd not seen since I was a kid

The cabin crew handed out boiled sweets. After the engine started, we pushed back under our own power and made our way to the runway

Thank you

Thank you

After takeoff, we were treated to a display of Scotland's ever-changing weather

I'd said at the start of the video that it was pretty sunny, and it was, but it was very

stormy by the time we managed to take off from Aberdeen. I'll give you the flight details in a moment, but it's important to remember that this journey

by road takes around 5 hours and by train and bus over 6

Just 93 miles as the crow flies, this flight cuts out a significant dogleg on the mainland

We'll only get up to 8,000 feet today and it'll take just 25 minutes

Despite the very short time in the air on this flight, there's still time for in-flight service

The cabin crew handed out soft drinks and snacks. And in case you're wondering what was in that plastic bag that you see me carrying around

it was this, my healthy option for the day. It's easy to get a sense of the sort of people that usually make this journey

if the magazine that was handed out on boarding is anything to go by. As well as The Spectator, which is a very conservative magazine

there's also Flybe's own Flight Time magazine. I wonder how many people actually read it on a flight this short

Flybe were recently purchased by Virgin Atlantic, who saved them from collapse

This is a very extensive route map, and I wonder how many of those routes will survive

in the years ahead. It's a simply gorgeous day above the clouds, but we're only up there for about 10 or 15

minutes, by which time it's almost time to land, and again another boiled sweet was handed

out by the crew. It's difficult to imagine taking a flight of 93 miles anywhere else in the world, and

coming across the wide range of weather that we experience on this flight

Stay tuned for a very wet landing. The far north of Scotland is an under visited

and surprisingly beautiful place The approach into Wick was spectacular It also takes us over the site of former RAF Kilimster Wikipedia tells me that this airbase was the first place that gliders were used

in World War Two by Allied Forces. Taxiing in, I see a very unusual sight, a Nigerian registered Dash 8

But what's it doing here in Wick? Well, I conducted my own research and it turns out that this aircraft was being ferried from Funchal Madeira over to Ottawa in Canada for storage and dismantling

I've actually found a video of the aircraft in its dismantled state and I've linked it in the description text below

This particular flight cost me £97 one way. Now, that is quite a lot of money, of course, for a flight of only 25 minutes

However, you should definitely bear in mind that this journey shaves hours off the travel

times via road and rail. Personally, I took this flight just for the novelty and because I thought it would make

a pretty cool video. There aren't too many opportunities left to fly in jet streams around the world

We're lucky that Eastern Airways still has a few left flying. As far as I'm concerned, this was money well spent

Scotland where I've got my hotel room sorted for the night. Anyway, I really hope you enjoy coming with me on this very novel trip report

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But until next time, I'll see you around. We'll see you next time