Taxis, planes and automobiles madness in Berlin

We editors sometimes have to restrain our tub-thumping. But am I unreasonable to expect direct flights from Birmingham to Berlin?

Birmingham is the centre of the second largest conurbation in Britain. Berlin is Germany's capital. Surely there are enough business, governmental and quango links between these European giants to justify scheduled services?

Not so, I'm afraid. And as a result, I'm still yawning today as I recover from 4x taxis, 4x flights and a total of more than 16 hours travelling... all for a 5-hour business visit.

This start with a taxi to the airport at 10.30am... to check in at 11am... for a flight at 1pm-ish... which arrived in Amsterdam at 3pm-ish (European time)... a wait until 6pm-ish for the connection to Berlin... arriving at 7.30pm-ish... taxi to hotel by 8.15pmish...

The meeting the next day was at 9.30am, and was over by 2pm. Then throw the above travel schedule in reverse, with me arriving home at 10pm-ish.

Methinks a research of the train timetable or even a comparison with car fuel costs might come next time.

Come on BA... surely with the £850m+ profits announced today, you can provide something better than this??