For all its howling flaps and smelly sweaty-socks air conditioning, the little 146 used to take me from British West Oxfordshire to Frankfurt on Friday, back early on Monday with the delightful 'buzz' from Stansted. I used to leave home at 10:00 carrying an overnight bag, walk to the bus, change to the Stansted coach at Oxford, have a bite to eat at Stansted, fly UK2294 to Frankfurt, then get the S-bahn and tram to my lady friend's flat - a nice journey with no hassles....
But then it all started to go wrong. The coach from Oxford began to take an hour longer via some obscure shopping centre, so instead I'd drive to Stansted....only to find the car park buses getting bigger and less frequent. Then buzz was sold to Ryanair by the wooden-headed, wooden-footed KLM idiots.....and I never went to Stansted ever again.
So it was good-bye 146, hello again Lufthansa!
Shame - it was always such a friendly service. But the 146 cannot have been very economical on that route, given the cost of engine maintenance.
A slice of history I really miss.....
Stuff the 146, we want to know what happened to the lady friend Beags?
