Factfile: The Nordics

FLIGHTS

bmi: The airline flies from Aberdeen to Esbjerg in Denmark (daily, Mon-fri); to Gothenburg from Birmingham (daily, Sun-fri) and from Bristol (Mon-thurs); from Newcastle to Stavanger (Sun-tue, Thurs-fri); and from Aberdeen to Oslo (Tues-fri).

british Airways: The airline flies from London Heathrow to Copenhagen (up to seven times a day) and Billund in Denmark (twice a day); to Stockholm (up to five times a day) and Gothenburg (three times a day) in Sweden; and to Oslo (up to four times a day), Helsinki (twice a day) and Reykjavik (daily). British Airways also offers several services operated on its behalf by Sun-air of Scandinavia. These include Manchester to Billund (up to three times a day) and Gothenburg (seasonal), and London City to Billund.

easyjet: Operates to Ostersund, Sweden, from Gatwick once per week, and to Stockholm Arlanda from Luton (4) and Bristol (2). There are 20 flights a week from Gatwick to Copenhagen, plus services from Edinburgh (4), Bristol (2) and Manchester (11). It flies from Gatwick to Keflavik nine times a week, and also from Stansted (3), Edinburgh (3), Belfast (2), Manchester (9) and Bristol (3).

Finnair: Operates from four airports in the UK: Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Edinburgh. There is a seventimes-daily service from Heathrow to Helsinki, a twice-daily service from Manchester, and flights from Edinburgh are three a week, rising to five weekly flights during the summer. During the winter season, Finnair flies twiceweekly from London Gatwick to Ivalo and once weekly to Kittilä.

icelandair: The airline flies non-stop to Keflavik from Heathrow twice a day with onward connections to other Nordic destinations.

not seen before and seemed to confuse a few passengers. The 15-inch highdefinition touchscreen was impressive, and I liked the generous space on my right side and the storage space behind me. The seat turned into a lie-flat bed that extended almost two metres long and, with padded seat covers, felt ultracomfortable. The space had its own power portal and USB port. The rave inflight entertainment system powered by Zodiac, features over 100 movies. There is no wifi onboard, but users can stream extra content to their personal devices, via an app, before their flight.

the service Before take-off I was offered sparkling wine, orange juice or water and a scorching-hot towel. I enjoyed the dinner of salad, soup and a seafood trio of shrimp, scallops and cod – eventually! I was overlooked and the passenger opposite me had finished her dinner and was asleep before I had even been asked for my choices. But the head steward apologised and we laughed it off.

the Verdict The a330-300 is an extremely quiet aircraft. It looked and smelt spanking new and the business seat and space was extremely spacious. Moreover, there is comfort to be had knowing you are flying on a state-of the art piece of kit. a few more smiles from the crew would have been welcome.

the details Business class flights start from £2,900 return, inclusive of taxes. flysaa.com Steve Hartridge