We’re back from a fabulous weekend in Amsterdam You’ll have to wait just a little longer to hear our tales from the city as I wanted to share our experience of flying from Humberside to Schiphol. Does it pay to fly local?
Humberside Airport
- Its location, just off the M180, makes it very accessible for people in North Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. For us, travelling up from South Lincolnshire, 90 minutes of leisurely driving via the back roads was wonderfully stress-free.
- The car parks are just at the door so no need for buses to take us to the terminal.
- Humberside airport is small but beautifully formed. Functional outside but rather pretty inside with the very chic Aviator lounge and bar.
- Passport control and security is swift. On our return journey we were back in our car within about 10 minutes of the plane touching down. Even passengers with hold luggage were able to pick up their bags as soon as they had cleared immigration.
- Unfortunately very few airlines fly from this airport. On the day we travelled there were three flights with KLM to Amsterdam each day plus some internal flights. The rest were helicopters. I may have to start a one-woman campaign for more routes.
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| The Aviator Bar, Humberside Airport, at 9am… |
- Cityhopper planes are clean, comfortable and have plenty of leg room.
- I had no idea the flight would be so quick: just less than an hour to Amsterdam. No sooner had we reached cruising altitude than we began our descent. I hardly had enough time to finish reading the in-flight magazine. I should have snaffled it, as it was a good one.
- No-fuss catering. As the flight is less than 90 minutes, complimentary water and a snack is provided.
- Staff at check-in and on board were friendly and efficient.
- Great system for hand baggage. Rather than everyone trying to squeeze their luggage into the overhead lockers, a number of cases (ours included) are given pink tags and told to leave them at the foot of the steps before they are put in the hold. When the plane arrives at Schiphol, passengers are only allowed off once the pink-tagged cases are ready to be picked up at the steps again.
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| Our Cityhopper plane waiting to take us to Schiphol |
- There’s no denying Schiphol is huge so it does take some time for the plane to taxi to the terminal. This, however, is made very enjoyable by the fact that the plane trundles over a motorway bridge once it has landed. That must be quite a sight for motorists.
- Passport control is very efficient: no queues when we passed through.
- The train station is underneath the airport terminal so onward travel is swift and easy. Trains are every 15 minutes to the centre of Amsterdam at a cost of 5 euros. My only complaint is they should have a one-queue system like we do in the UK, rather than passengers having to choose a queue and inevitably choosing the slowest line. Of course we could have bought a ticket from one of the many yellow ticket machines but you know how we have a habit of breaking them…
- Schiphol Plaza is a tourist attraction in itself. If you have time to spare before your flight you will have plenty of options for eating and shopping. Trish’s top tip: on your return journey don’t throw away your bottle of water before you go through passport control. The security checks only occur when you reach your departure gate so you have plenty of drinking time before the no-liquids rule applies.
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| Can I book this clog to take me to my departure gate? |
In short, Humberside airport is a dream and KLM offers an efficient, comfortable service. As for Schiphol, if we were travelling long-haul in the future, I would seriously consider flying from Amsterdam. For us, driving to Humberside for a connection to Schiphol is a possible alternative to driving to Heathrow and would provide us with a lot more options for onward flights.
My husband and I flew as guests of KLM from Humberside to Amsterdam, however, a return flight from Humberside to Amsterdam with KLM starts from just £119 per person. As ever all opinions are my own.
Small airports are brilliant and such a refreshing change from the likes of Heatheow and Gatwick. KLM are an excellent airline and I believe an excellent way to avoid our ludicrous inter-continental departure taxes by flying via Amsterdam.
Good point about the taxes, Troy.
I prefer small airports too. We have two near us – Montpellier and Nimes but I hardly ever fly these days so it's been a while since I passed through them.
Most of our flights recently have been via a large airport in the UK, usually Stansted, and a little one in Europe for Oslo, Stockholm etc (using Ryanair) . It was great to get the benefit of a small airport on the UK side this time.
I wish I'd read this before my trip to Amsterdam last week – I did indeed throw away the bottled water at the security gate!
So did we! Three of them! So frustrating as we then became thirsty and had to buy more.
I do love visiting Amsterdam. I'm looking forward to hearing about your travels….the best thing about travelling via Schiphol, in my view, is the fact you get to hop onto a double-decker train at the other end, and arrive at Amsterdam station, with all the hundreds of bikes parked outside!
Yes, the double-decker train! I forgot to mention that. They could do with some of those in this country – solve the overcrowding on commuter trains.
As for the bikes, you do wonder if some of them have been there for years and are just abandoned.
Sounds like a good experience, I like using our local airport if possible, as getting to the London ones adds hours onto the journey time.
We are lucky we are within 2 hours drive of quite a few airports – Stansted, Luton, Norwich, East Midlands, Birmingham – but this was such an easy drive. Would definitely use it again.
So glad all went well and that you're starting your one woman campaign for more routes. I've got no doubt they will expand them and you'll be off to all sorts of places fairly shortly – which I look forward to hearing all about obvs. I think it's particularly interesting that you'd consider using Schiphol for connections!
Absolutely – I would look at the cost but it would be far easier for us to avoid London altogether.
I love smaller airports – and Amsterdam of course! The one thing that stuck in my mind from the last time we went, 9 whole years ago, is it's one of the few places where the airports offer up a real flavour of the culture – getting you in the mood before you even arrive at the hotel!
You're right, Annie. When we arrived I was tempted to spend some time shopping in the plaza before getting our train. We decided to leave that until our departure.
Humberside airport looks great, and I can definitely see why flying via Amsterdam would be more attractive than travelling to London. KLM look great too, my husband has been to Amsterdam a few times recently for work. I must ask him about Schiphol.
They seemed to be doing some renovations while we were there but Schiphol had a great vibe – very colourful as well as efficient.
Great way to fly -almost private feeling, weeny plane and small airport and all. Remember your friends on the way up up up darlink!
It did feel as if we were in a private airport though Dougie warned me to be careful which door we went through or we would end up in a chopper…
Your blog and photographs accurately portray Humberside as a very civilised and up-market airport. In addition to KLM, scheduled services are operated by Flybe and resident airline Eastern Airways (the current holder of the European Regions Airline Association gold award). Over the years it has attracted scheduled services from such flag-carrying networks as Air France, British Airways, Sabena and SAS. It has been rated as the 9th best airport in the World in one business travel survey.It was rated the 2nd best airport in the U.K. by Which? in 2013. (It was unrated in 2014 as their sample size was too small). Unlike East Midlands or Stansted, it is not currently served by any airlines which are associated with the mad-scramble system of seat allocation. For 2015 even some of the charter flights (to Alicante, Malaga and Palma) will be operated by British Airways. Your campaign for more routes will be very welcome.
Thank you for adding all this info about Humberside. I had no idea about the awards: very well deserved.
I appreciate you taking the time to comment.
I have always liked KLM and I really like that giant clog! 😀
I had never used KLM before but I will certainly use them again.
I think they could market these clogs as kids' toy cars 🙂
Your campaign for more routes is gathering momentum. They are introducing a series of long week-end charter flights in the late spring. The destinations are Barcelona, Nice and Venice. The flights will be operated by Eastern Airways, utilising their Embraer regional jet fleet.
It has also emerged that a Hilton-branded hotel will be opened on the airport site in mid-2016.
Now that's great news. Thanks for letting me know. Have been to all three destinations (Nice by train!) but would definitely go again from Humberside.
And the hotel opening will make the airport even more desirable.
They just announced today they will be offering flights to Paris and Rome also with Eastern airways.