VG, I didn't mention the cabin service standards - that doesn't bother a pilot much.
I agree Suckling offered a very unusual and friendly - though hugely expensive - service to pax and the food was very good. Only cold stuff though as there were no ovens on the 228 and despite the food & drinks baskets having to be stored on the "splash tray" in front of the toilet and on it's lid for t/o and landing. Utterly revolting! Can you imagine getting away with that today? I don't know how they got away with that even then.
Reliability/on time performance can often be enhanced by operating small aircraft and using quiet airfields and sneaking into gaps between heavies at larger ones and worked quite well and is always artificially enhanced on such aged and tired-out aircraft as long as they "never" go wrong and the weather "never" falls below Cat1 limits (200ft cloudbase, double that at Cambridge) This may well fool pax but it doesn't fool most pilots.
ISTR that the LTN - AMS route was killed by the announcement that the shortly-to-be-started Debonair was introducing the same route.
Last edited by meleagertoo; 5th Jul 2018 at 10:25.