Review of Qantas flight Sydney → Canberra in Economy

Air Austral B773ER taking off.


Boarding gates.


The transit in Sydney was 2hrs. Plenty of time to do the transfer between the 2 flights. My flight to Canberra would be departing from Gate 9. At every gate, there were newspaper racks offering the day's publication for free to all Qantas passengers. A very nice gesture!


28 November 2011
Qantas
QF 787
Sydney (SYD) - Canberra (CBR)
B737-400
VH-TJZ
Economy Class

Operating today's short hop to the capital is VH-TJZ, a 15 years old B734. Certainly younger than the B744 I flew in on.


Boarding was announced 15min prior to STD and passengers trooped onboard. Headsets were also available at the gate. Wow, even inflight entertainment is offered for such a short flight! Was welcomed at the door by name and directed down the aisle to my window seat near the aft of the baby boeing. 4 cabin crew would be looking after us on this flight.

At the gate. The B744 beside would be operating to Perth.


Boarding. Most pax were business travellers who frequent this route i guess, making the boarding very swift and fuss-free.


Seat pitch is acceptable for such a short flight.


The middle seat remained empty. Yeah, more room to stretch out!


Inflight magazine and safety card in the seat pocket.


Long time not seen dial-type IFE controls! Radio channels were already playing during boarding.


Doors were closed on time and we pushed back. However there was a slight delay due to morning congestion and a further delay due to a long taxi to the runway. No wonder QF padded their Canberra Cityflyer flights at 55min when the actual flight time is at most 30min. Again safety demo was shown both on video and manually.

The F1 plane out of the hangar.


SQ A380 being towed to the remote stand.


Looong taxi to Rwy34R. For those who knows the layout of SYD, it meant taxiing for almost 5km! Passing a newly painted Virgin Australia B738. LAN A340 just landed in the background.


Rex Beech 340


Jetstar A320. I think I saw more Jetstars in SIN than in SYD!



The taxi was so long that the pilot used the taxi time to gave his announcement.



Delta B772LR landing on Rwy34L.



Finally we took off from Rwy34R!



Blue skies and sea.


Making a right turn back inland.


At this time, seatbelt signs were switched off. Crew immediately started the morning refreshment service. 2 male crew were in charge of economy while the female CSM and another guy were in Business. Morning news was also shown on the overhead CRT monitors. Service was from the front to the rear and was very fast but polite.


Spot SYD!


Sydney city in the distance.


We flew along the coast to Wollongong.


Overflying Wollongong.


For morning snack, we were offered a breakfast bar and a choice of juice or water. I had the juice, which came in a 250ml bottle. More than sufficient for this very short flight! SQ/MI could learn from this on their SIN-KUL flights. There was also a waste bag and a napkin.


Great weather and nice scenery!


Very soon, we were starting our descent into Canberra, barely 15mins after takeoff!


Making some turns.


Flaps down.


Another turn to short finals. See the runway in the distance?



Rough landing into Rwy35, probably due to strong crosswinds. The engines were spooling up and down throughout the approach.



DJ's new ATR72. Expansion works were going on at the terminal.


At the Qantas side of the terminal.


Parked at the gate, beside a B738.


Disembarking.