Review of SilkAir flight Singapore → Yogyakarta-Java Island in Economy

It has been a rather hectic month for me at work recently, and within the busy schedule, I was required to go to Yogyakarta, or more commonly known as Jogja, in Indonesia for some work-related matters with some colleagues for 5 days. This work trip also allowed me to experience some sights of Jogja, which will be shared here as well.

As usual, online check-in was done earlier and we dropped our bags at Terminal 2 slightly more than an hour prior to departure on a Sunday morning. During booking of flights just a week prior to travel, our travel agent had informed that the flight was almost full and only had 6 full-fare economy tickets left (thus our tickets costing an exorbitant amount) but later on during the flight, the cabin was barely more than half full! Not sure why the huge difference.

Boarding pass issued.




Through immigration with no hassles. Many MI planes were awaiting their morning departures, including the MI's 1st B738 in MI's 25th anniversary livery.




Departing from E24 today, which was also shared with Tiger's flight to Male departing at a slightly later time. This gate is one of the few gates in T2 where 2 narrow-body aircraft can be parked together using separate arms of the aerobridge.




Our A320, 9V-SLG, parked at the gate, with TR's A320 parked at the other arm.




Boarding started soon after.





14 September 2014
SilkAir
MI 152
Singapore (SIN) - Yogyakarta (JOG)
A320
9V-SLG
Economy Class

Welcomed at the door and passed the 12-seater Business Class cabin which seemed comfortable enough for short flights. However, how MI justify premium fares on these seats on flights more than 4hrs is beyond me.




Reached my seat at the 2nd row of economy, with decent legroom. Pillows and blankets were available in the overhead bins and I helped myself to them.




An AI Dreamliner was parked beside, and another beside it!




Inflight magazine, duty-free and safety card.




This aircraft is equipped with SilkAir Studio, SilkAir's wireless streaming entertainment system. The guide to using the system can be found in the seat pocket as well.






Crew first came down offering newspapers, followed by an additional frill, hot towels nope, but packaged wet towelettes. Well, it is the thought that counts…




With the light load, doors were closed early and we pushed back on time. Safety demo was shown manually as the safety video decided to go on strike and hanged whenever it was started. Tough luck for the crew. Guess some refresher safety demo training for them haha. Flight time estimated to be 1h50m.




We taxied to Rwy20C for takeoff this morning.




Can you spot the 3 Dreamliners?




After a bit of a wait due to heavy traffic, we took off.




Flying over Batam.




After takeoff announcements.




Our cruising altitude was announced to be 36000ft.




The selection for SilkAir Studio was printed in the inflight magazine. Not too many choices but enough to keep one entertained on a short flight, provided you have a smartphone, tablet of laptop to stream the entertainment, and of course enough battery juice as there are no power ports in economy.








Shortly after takeoff, breakfast was served. Being seated at the front, we were one of the first to be served by the crew. We were offered a choice of Pancakes with vanilla sauce and peach compote or Spicy chicken with noodles. Along with the meal was just a warm roll with butter and a cup of water. I requested for a coffee and an orange juice.




Chose the pancakes, which was nothing memorable. A few small pieces of pancakes with canned-fruit mix and vanilla sauce below. It felt kind of cheap…




My colleague had the other choice, where the noodles turned out to be beehoon aka thin rice noodles. According to him, not too great either as the bee hoon was almost tasteless.




After the meal trays were collected, I decided to try out SilkAir Studio and downloaded the app on my Samsung S3 handphone.




Some of the movie selections






Short features






I settled for the popular Singaporean comedy series The Noose. Streaming of the contents were rather smooth.




Who don't love the oh-so-famous Lulu!!




Music CD selections are also available.




For passengers with no streaming devices, silent short features were also shown on drop-down screens.




View of the cabin, which was about 60% full.




Some views during the flight.






Soon, we started our descent, flying along the coast.




Approaching Jogja, flying over the densely populated city.




Flying over the main shopping strip Malioboro, with the palace Kraton just ahead.




Our hotel, Jambuluwuk Malioboro, which is the white building sticking out among the low-rises, can be seen.




Nearly there… The airport is located smack in the middle of the city.




And touchdown on Rwy09 almost 20min early.




See the video of the entire approach and landing into Yogyakarta here.




Just a short taxi to the small terminal building with 8 parking bays. The airport may be small, but the air traffic is definitely heavy!




Parked at our stand. No aerobridges at JOG and all flights have to be disembarked via stairs.




Disembarking.






And a stroll to the terminal building.




Citilink, Garuda's LCC arm, beside us.




Sriwijaya Air pulling into stand.




Lunch after arrival.




Thanks to SilkAir's 3x weekly schedule, we arrived on a Sunday and thus was able to spend the day exploring some sights. How can any trip to Jogja be without going to the Borobudor Temple, one of the World Heritage sites and the biggest Buddhist temple in South-east Asia!!




















We stayed at Jambuluwuk Malioboro Hotel, where I had a really spacious room!




And what can a trip to Indonesia be without at least a meal of A&W!