Review of QantasLink flight from Canberra to Melbourne in Economy

We live in Iceland and we went to Australia for the end of the year holidays to see relatives who live there – we haven’t been there for five years. And as Australia is quite far from Iceland – the distance between Keflavík and Melbourne would be 16,960 kms if there was a direct flight – I went to a few places in Asia before and after Australia.

 I booked the following flights:
Keflavík to London, Icelandair, business class, B737
London to Abu Dhabi, Etihad, business class, A380
Abu Dhabi to Jakarta, Etihad by Wamos, business class, A330
Yogyakarta to Kuala Lumpur, Air Asia, economy, A320
Kuala Lumpur to Manila, Philippine Airlines, business class, A321
Manilla to Sydney, Philippine Airlines, business class, A330
Canberra to Melbourne, Qantas, economy, B717
Melbourne to Hobart, Virgin Australia, economy, B737
Hobart to Melbourne, Jetstar, economy, A320
Melbourne to Manilla, Philippine Airlines, business class, A330
Manilla to Kuala Lumpur, Philippine Airlines, business class, A320
Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok, Malaysia Airlines, business class, B737,
Bangkok to Hongkong, Emirates, first class, A380
Hongkong to Manila, Air Asia Philippines, economy, A320
Manila to Panglao, Cebu Pacific, economy, A321
Cebu to Singapore, Singapore Airlines, business class, A350
Singapore to London, Singapore Airlines, business class, A380
London to Keflavík, British Airways, business class, A320

Boeing has produced the following types of passenger jets:

B707, the first mass produced jet of which 865 were built between 1956 and 1978; none of them are used in regular commercial service anymore;
B717, possibly the least known narrow-body Boeing jet of which only 156 were built between 1998 and 2006; a total of 105 of them are used regularly by Delta, Hawaiian and QantasLink;
B727, a popular narrow-body from the 1960s to the 1980s of which 1832 were built between 1962 and 1984; only 35 of them are still actively used by 24 carriers;
B737, Boeing’s most successful narrow-body of which 11,615 have been built since 1966;
B747, the Jumbo Jet, the first wide-body aircraft of which 1,574 were built between 1968 and 2023, many of the still flying today;
B757, a narrow-body of which 1,050 were built between 1981 and 2004;
B767, a wide-body of which 1,296 have been built since 1981;
B777, a wide-body of which 1,723 have been built since 1993;
B787 Dreamliner, a wide-body of which 1,099 have been built since 2007.

B717 is the Boeing jet of which the fewest were produced; this is the plane I flew on from Canberra to Melbourne with QantasLink.

Canberra Airport is a travellers’ dream: it’s close to the city centre, modern, user friendly and not crowded.

There's is this unusual piece of art at the airport.

Canberra has many domestic flights: about 25 flights on a typical day to Sydney, 16 to Melbourne, 10 to Brisbane, three or four to Adelaide, one or two to Hobart and one to Perth; there are no direct flights to Darwin. There are also up to four flights a day to Newcastle, NSW and one or two flights a day to Gold Coast, Queensland. The only international flight is to Nadi, Fiji, three times a week.

Check-in was very easy.

The terminal has a lot of natural light.

The Christmas tree at Canberra Airport.

This is the best place if you need to buy drinks or snacks before your flight.

Our plane, VH-NXQ, a B717-200, built in 2001.

The Rolls-Royce BR700 turbofan engines are mounted at the rear of the fuselage.

A Boeing 717-200 safety card.

The plane has 12 business class seats in a 2+2 configuration in three rows and 98 economy class seats in a 2+3 configuration in 20 rows (the last row has only three seats).

The seats are nice and in good condition.

The flight was fully booked.

Push-back was at 09.55 for a scheduled departure time of 09.50.

We took off at 10.02 from runway 17.

Cookie, chocolates, apples, water, fruit juices and soft drinks were offered free of charge during this very short flight of about one hour.

The cabin crew was very friendly.

Qantas has a printed on-board magazine.

There will be a direct flight between Perth and Paris.

Qantas’ route network.

Fan fact: Qantas stands for Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services.

We landed in Melbourne at 10.47 and were at the gate at 10.51 for a scheduled arrival time of 11.00.

Our neighbour after landing: VH-VYK, a B737-800.