NUMBER 2361 IN AVMAN’S “THE GOOD OLD DAYS” SERIES
Many many years ago, when life was just a little less hectic than now, whenever possible we would go out of our way to arrange a shortcut from KOK direct to the approach fix at BSL for a well known Swiss operator. Although it did require some considerable coordination we did this because they were the only carrier flying that particular route through our airspace and so it only needed to be done a few times per day. On one occasion as the aircraft was being transferred to Reims and the crew thanked us for the direct route, one of our guys jokingly replied, “don’t forget to send the chocolates”. They duly arrived a few days later! As time went by it became known as the chocolate route and we would clear them as such, “XXX123 climb flight level two niner zero, chocolate route approved”. For many years we were treated to a regular supply of the finest Swiss chocolates. Ah, the good old days.
