It was 4 amazing days in Cape Town and I had to drag myself back to Singapore. How I am gonna miss the clear blue skies, the natural scenery, the food... Our flight back was at 12pm and I had booked the airport shuttle to pick us up at our hotel at 0930am. It was only a 20min drive to the airport.
Cape Town airport only has 1 departure check-in hall for both international and domestic flights. It was spruced up for the World Cup and was looking quite modern. Not an "african" airport that we would imagine it to be.
SQ has 6 check-in counters opened for check in and they were not too busy. According to the staff, our load today in economy would only be 150/255.
I could not get row 55 during online check-in and so settled for row 54 instead. Notice something different in the boarding pass?
Printed on it is the sentence "Have a pleasant flight" instead of the usual "be at the gate 15min before departure" thingy.
After check-in, we proceeded to grab some food (just in case) as well as some plane spotting. The viewing area where all the restaurants are is fantastic! It offers an unobstructed view of the gates and the runway!
International flights that has arrived.
BA/Comair B737-400 arrived from a domestic flight.
South African B738 preparing for departure.
Virgin A346 has also just arrived. Unfortunately no gates were available and it had to be parked at the remote stand.
1Time MD80 in zebra livery.
Etihad A332 departing for J'burg and Abu Dhabi.
Kulula B738 in a boring white livery
Now that's more like a Kulula jet! (B734)
View of check-in hall.
International departures for the day.
Of course I have! And I will be back!
Departure gates area. Some duty free shops and nothing much else. Very empty as not a lot of international departures are scheduled around this time.
South African A346
Some cargo jets in the distance. A B727 and B732.
23 January 2011
Singapore Airlines
SQ 481
Cape Town (CPT) - Singapore (SIN)
B777-200(ER)
9V-SVL
Economy Class
Boarding was announced about 40min before STD. Our aircraft would be 9V-SVL again!
Boarding was not by rows but with the light load, there was no problems with this. In fact we finished boarding 10min before STD! This set of crew appeared to be great again. In fact, I was greeted by name on both sectors when I stepped into the aircraft!
At the gate. Another BA aircraft , a B772, just arrived.
Seat pitch at 34" at normal rows. It was still great.
As usual, the normal procedure began. Hot towels, menus, amenity kits, headsets etc. After doors were closed, my friend jumped over to another ow to grab 3 seats for himself. So we had now a bed each! We pushed back on time with the safety video playing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTt_KwFmx8g