Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Frank Cvitanovich's charming documentary film follows the bizarre story of a husband and wife, Merlyn and Roy Suckling, who boldly decide to start up an airline. Suckling Airways, the UK's smallest international airline, has one 20-seater Dornier 228 plane and operates two daily flights from Cambridge to Manchester and Amsterdam.

Staff are on first-name terms with passengers, in-flight meals are prepared at home, and air hostesses must be under five foot three, "otherwise they would end up with a back problem!"

If everything goes to plan, Merlyn is hoping Roy might just have time to mow the lawn after he's landed the plane.


Clip taken from Forty Minutes, originally broadcast on BBC Two, 18 January, 1990.





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