A Word In Your Ear - September 21, 2017

They typically entailed waking in the middle of the night, stumbling around to get ready, then taking an expensive taxi ride to Manchester Airport – often sat anxiously in long tailbacks on the motorway.

Checking in, too, was full of stress, with slow queues and lots of red tape. Then came your entry to the departures lounge, having removed all valuables and security risks, followed by a tedious wait beside restless families, praying flights would be on time.

Hardly what you’d looked forward to as a welcome break from routine.

However, I do remember one lovely trip to Majorca. We got up at a decent hour and had a 10-minute ride to the airport; checked in smoothly, then just had time for a relaxing cup of coffee before boarding our flight, with Monarch I think. There were even other people we knew to chat with on the comfortable flight.

What made the difference, of course, was that we’d flown from Blackpool. Returning was the same stress-free experience, blissfully knowing we’d he home just a short while after landing.

How wonderful, then, to hear our council has sensibly – at last – taken over the airport and has plans for modest flights. An airport is a great boon for any town. Also, you have to be some sort of genius not to make money out of packed winter flights to Tenerife or similar popular getaways.

A glance at the map shows the sense of regular flights to the Isle of Man and Ireland. I just wish we also had ferry services going there and round to North Wales, as they did generations ago.

Sadly, commercial managements get greedy, expand too fast and can come crashing to earth. However, with steady municipal hands at the controls, we’ll soon be flying high!

For Roy’s books visit www.royedmonds-blackpool.com.