Flying from Amsterdam to Toulouse on KLM Cityhopper

An Embraer Emb-175 of KLM cityhopper fleet. Photo / Alec Wilson

Grant Bradley flies on KLM Cityhopper flight KL1301 from Amsterdam to Toulouse.

My seat: 16A, a window Economy seat in a 92-seat plane. Pitch at 29 inches and width at 17 inches a bit tight, but fine for the 1hr 25m flight. There's a 20-seat Business cabin and an eight-seat Economy Comfort area, with more room and curtained off during flight.

On time: Just on 20 minutes late. Air traffic control industrial action was disrupting Europe on that Sunday in early June.

The plane: A Brazilian-made Embraer ERJ175, the backbone of KLM's regional Europe fleet and very popular in the under-100 seat market around the world. They have a 2-2 configuration with a wider aisle than many larger aircraft, making for a more comfortable experience. My plane was just seven months old.

Price: One-way flights booked a month out in summer cost $220.

Entertainment: The airline's inflight mag, iFly.

Service: Two cabin crew dispensed food and drink with a smile. No fuss.

How full: Almost completely, apart from a seat that should have been occupied by a colleague from an international media pack heading to Airbus. There was confusion at the departure gate.

Toilets: One at the very back of the cabin. Much bigger than on other larger single aisle planes. In good nick throughout the flight.

Baggage: 23kg in the hold and two carry-on items totalling 12kg.

Food and drink: The airline has apparently upped its game recently, there were two rounds of coffee, tea, water and juice and a tasty chicken and mayo sandwich in organic bread. According to the blurb on the packaging, the birds had a great life wandering the wilderness of an idyllic Dutch farm. (Before meeting their end and being made into a pressed chicken roll ... )

Airport experience: We arrived at the sprawling Schiphol Airport from Hong Kong about 8am. It was a walk from one corner of it to the other where Cityhopper is located, so got to stretch the legs. Transiting through to another European country at Schiphol appeared to entail more queuing than if you were simply entering The Netherlands. Schiphol handles close to 70 million passengers a year (Auckland handles 20 million) but is a calm place. I love the travellers' library and a giant cup of coffee was just about $6.

The bottom line: The KLM Cityhopper was just fine — the Embraer jets are excellent, nippy aircraft and crew friendly.