VLM Airlines

I fly Manchester - London City with VLM on most Friday mornings (the 9.30 am flight) and it appears to be a reliable service. Wheels up is normally at 9.45 and you are on the ground again at 10.30. A good price of £41 all inclusive is available if you book about 3 weeks in advance. It is not a lot quicker than the train for city centre to city centre travel but in my case I am going from South Manchester to Essex and there is an hours time saving.

I recently flew for business from London City to Rotterdam returning from Antwerp 3 days later. When our return flight was cancelled after a freak snow storm the only option we were given was to transfer to the 8am flight the next morning which itself was by no means guaranteed to depart. We were told point blank and with a shrug of shoulders that a refund would not be possible nor were we offered food vouchers transport or accommodation all of which we had to pay for ourselves. Such a shame to let themselves down so appallingly when they perform well in other areas. A colleague encountered an identical situation with Air Berlin the same week and was immediately offered a full refund - no questions asked.

I commented earlier this year about the food being tatty. There has been a considerable improvement in the food offered good news in that respect ! If you are a regular passenger on the Manchester / London City and use the late afternoon / evening flights you may have noticed recently that for some reason departures and arrivals are frequently delayed. This is a real nuisance when you have to have commitments at the other end. These flights are used by mainly by business and professional passengers who have commitments. The challege is for VLM to get its act together and improve on the service which has been most disappointing of late. Time is money.

London City to Jersey 15.50 Friday 16.9.2005. Firstly delayed because of fog. Then taking off at 8.00pm. Then cancelled because of 'weather conditions ' - so no compensation and no alternative but the 6am flight the next morning. How do you get to LC airport at 5.30am ? At what cost is the overnight stay and the transport let alone the cancelled appointments loss of a day's paid holiday etc ? VLM personnel unconcerned; supervisor unavailable ( 45 mins later turned up) No compensation no accommodation overnight . No transport and the airport closes shortly. Lies about weather conditions to avoid compensation for cancellation- other flights were landing in Jersey all this time as confirmed by other passengers being met in Jersey.

Amsterdam - London City (3rd October). No hassles for check-in with a total of 14 passengers on the flight (Fokker 50 with something around 50 seats I presume). Flight left on time and arrived into London City airport 5 minutes early. Excellent service from the two cabin crew during the flight including information on how to reach the city from LCY airport. Inflight meals were great (I did end up eating a business class meal but economy meal looked fine also for a 45 minute flight). Will certainly fly VLM again should they fly where I'm heading!

I flew London City to Brussels with VLM and found them to be a very friendly and professional airline. Boarding was very quick and we took off on time. Shortly after take-off we were given sandwiches and mini Belgian waffles which I didn't really expect. The Fokker 50 was quite spacious with Grey leather seats. We had plenty of head and feet room and the aisle was wide enough to walk down comfortably! The return flight was exactly the same quick check-in and boarding with friendly staff and a clean aircraft.