Aussie Trip Part 3: Qantas Link – An interesting regional flight experience and 717s

[Carfield]

Aussie Trip Part 3: Qantas Link – An interesting regional flight experience and I miss these B717s!



After a rather disappointing start to my Australia trips, things finally showed a sign of recovery. I was looking forward to this trip on Qantas Link operated by National Jet System/Cobham Aviation, which is my 201st airline.
Most importantly, Qantas Link operates a fleet of Boeing 717-200s, which were no longer that easy to fly on. Delta will soon be the only US airline with Boeing 717s. I was also exciting about finally visiting Uluru, which was the main attraction of the trip. I am sure some of you will find this routing strange. What you are going to Uluru, but why are you flying to Alice Springs via Uluru? Well Yalara, the closest town to Uluru, has a number of resorts, but the prices are rather high and I don’t want to stay at the lower end of the five resorts featured here. Plus the tour itself will not be much cheaper than departure from Alice Springs. Of course the drive from Alice Springs to Uluru was torturous, but Alice Springs is a better alternative for the price of accommodation, especially I can stay at a Hilton family hotel with an affordable price. Anyway, I accidentally add my Uluru photo album to this album, so you are free to look at them too. I definitely enjoyed the day trip to Uluru.

September 21, 2014
QF 1851 CNS-AYQ Lv0725 Arr0950 Boeing 717-200 VH-NXE

Cairns Airport was already fairly busy on this Sunday morning with a number of morning Jetstar flights and the G20 summit, and Qantas check-in area was thankfully fairly quiet, as the first departure was not until 6:55am. The domestic terminal at Cairns is actually quite nice with a fair number of eateries, shops, and sitting area. Both Qantas and Virgin Australia offer lounges for their premium and elite passengers.




Japanese sign


Flight Information


Qantas Club Cairns – still closed when I arrived and did not open till 5:55am.
It was a really nice spacious lounge but Qantas has a major operation here. The d้cor was pretty standard Qantas style and here were a few pictures here and there:

[Carfield]

Breakfast spread – typical fruit, cereal, museli, yogurt, cold cut, breads, and pancakes

[Carfield]

Children Area



What I like was the apron view – there were actually some interesting activities, but it was too dark for any pictures to come out great. But I spotted the morning Cathay Pacific flight to Brisbane, as well as the arrival of Jetstar’s Dreamiiner VH-VKE arriving from Narita. To my surprise, Qantas flight 24 from Bangkok to Sydney was diverted to Cairns in the morning, and VH-QPE was stuck here for an hour, while offloading a drunken passenger, who was trying to steal liquors. He was being handcuffed by under-cover agents, and was off loaded at Cairns with a court date later this week.






Our flight to Connellan airport at Ayers Rock was lightly loaded this morning, and the flight was mainly vacationers from both Australia and Japan. I think it was 30% full. Boarding began at 7:04am and it involves a nice walk to the tarmac. I loved it and took the chances to shoot these pictures.



Virgin Australia VH-ZPD E190 to Brisbane


Qantas Link Boeing 717-200 VH-NXN


Qantas Link Boeing 717-200 VH-NXE – taking me to Uluru and Alice Springs

[Carfield]

A few cabin shot of this all economy class Boeing 717 – 125 passengers in total







Back of seat with two literature pockets


My seat this morning was 16F, which was the exit row seat. I noticed that both QF and VA did a very elaborate safety briefing for exit row passengers. I was eventually joined by another passenger at 16D and middle seat was left vacant.

[Carfield]

I spotted this Dash-8 just before we pushed back.


Due to the G20 Summits, there were some interesting planes in the tarmac.


Door was closed at 7:18am and we pushed back a minute later. We took off from R/W15 at 7:28am.




Flying time was two hours and forty minutes. Our cruising attitude was 34,000feet this morning, and our routing, according to pilot, took us towards Georgetown, Mt. Isa, Alice Springs, and then onto Ayers Rock Connellan Airport.

A hot breakfast was served on today’s flight today. The meal was actually not too bad. There was no choice of entr้e, but at least it was warmed. It consisted of a ham, egg, and potato frittata with mushrooms and cherry tomatoes, along with a Wholemeal Raspberry Brekky loaf by temptation bakeries and an orange juice cup. It was a bit on the salty side, but I finished the whole meal.





Tea, coffee, and water were offered after breakfast was served. The three F/As were very friendly and the service was good, even better than Virgin Australia.


I took a few pictures of the rear of the aircraft, which was not occupied at all.

[Carfield]

Seat in recline position



Rear engine – can’t get a good shot



Legroom on regular seats – pretty tight – maybe 30”





Legroom on exit row


Entertainment on the flight:
Two Qantas inflight magazines – one for Regional flights and one for mainline flights, along with an extra safety card for exit row passengers

[Carfield]

The cabin crew came with water run about forty minutes prior to arrival.

Descent soon began at 9:15am local time, and we passed both the Kuta Oja and Uluru.
Many pictures on arrival






We landed on R/W13 at 9:38am, and there was no parallel taxiway, so we backtracked through the runway. That would be the theme for both Alice Springs and Ayers Rock Connellan Airport. We parked at Bay number 1 at 9:42am.

VH-NXE at AYQ – we were the first arrival of the day and the only flight there during our short layover.



Ayers Rock Resort welcome sign


There is a small baggage claim area, and Ayers Rock Resort representatives are already waiting to pick up their resort guests. They have a complete monopoly over the four or five resorts here in Yalara, the town next to Uluru.

Check-in hall


FLIO – Jetstar, Virgin Australia, and Qantas all served Ayers Rock.


After a brief security check, I was back at the small terminal area with a small caf้, a shop and some nice seats.

[Carfield]

QF 1940 AYQ-ASP Lv1030 Arr1115 Boeing 717-200 VH-NXE

This segment was actually pretty full, as many passengers were connecting to other major Australian cities through Alice Springs.


Boarding started early at 10:03am, and here came more shots of the plane. The flight attendants actually assisted in boarding. Door was closed at 10:16am. We were ready to start up soon.



We took off from R/W13 again at 10:26am, and flying time was thirty-five minutes with a cruising attitude of 35,000ft.


More shots during takeoff



Uluru again


There was actually an express beverage service on this short flight – mini bottled waters were handed out. There used to be a small snack pack in the past, but given this short flight time, bottled waters are nice. Maybe a pack of chips or a cookie will be nice too given how limited the offerings are at these airports. But honestly most US airlines don’t even bother with service on this kind of short flights.


Descent soon commenced at 10:43am and we landed on Alice Srpings airport at 11:01am and parked at Bay “6” four minutes later. This flight would continue to Darwin next.

[Carfield]

Farewell to my exit row seat – I suddenly realized that I never took a picture of my own seats so I did on disembarkation.






I spotted a Qantas Boeing 737-800 VH-VZV next door – heading to Melbourne.



Welcome to Alice Springs!






In conclusion, I am fairly impressed with Qantas Link Boeing 717-200s and its service.

Carfield

[CarbonMan]

Thanks, Carfield. Really like the 2-3 configuration of this 717-200.

[qantas_flyer]

Great trip review. Love the pictures.

[yflyer]

Thanks for posting, Carfield! I enjoyed reading your TR. Uluru is an amazing place, and I hope to visit one day. I am quite amazed at how many flights serve this destination. I've got a Qantas 717 flight coming up at the end of this year as well, from Sydney to Tasmania...nice to get a preview of the aircraft here. I've never been on a 717 before, although I once flew on an AA MD80, which I found surprisingly quiet in the front part of the Y cabin.