Qantas livery at Sydney
Qantas QF440 Melbourne Tullamarine MEL - Sydney Kingsford Smith SYD
09 May 2011
B767-300 VH-ZXD
Scheduled ETD/ETA: 1430-1555
Actual Time of Departure/Arrival: 1515-1618
Seat No: 4K
Looking at the departure information screen, I left the lounge at 14:10 to realize that gate 12 is located at one end of the terminal and it was a long walk but when I arrived, boarding has yet to start. Seems like its going to be a late departure today. In fact the later flight to Sydney on QF442 which is operated on a 737-800 went on to board first.
Qantas B767 with a departing CX A330
Qantas Boeing 767
This delay allowed me to take some more photos of the various Qantas jets in Melbourne and I was also able to take a shot of a departing Cathay A330. The late boarding at 14:40 as I later found out was due to the late arrival of the crew and the doors to the cabin were closed only at 14:50. Fast boarding of the plane allowed crew in business to serve welcome beverage of water or apple strawberry juice. I chose the latter which was a very nice drink and great for a change from the usual orange juice.
Business Class legroom
Welcome drink of apple and strawberry mixed juice
The business class cabin wasn't very packed and I ended up having both aisle and window seats by myself on the seats which were in a 2-2-2 abreast configuration. Compared to the Cathay Pacific regional Business Class that I had between Singapore and Bangkok, I found the seats as comfortable, though I thought it was a tad narrower. It might be due to the narrower cabin of the 767 compared to the 777 that Cathay operates. For such an old 767, the cabin interior was very clean and well maintained, and this reflects well on Qantas as an airline as I definitely was more comfortable in this cabin compared to the American Airlines' 767 that plies between JFK and LAX.
Qantas Business Class seats on domestic 767
Qantas Boeing 737-800 and a China Southern jet at the background
Qantas A380s and SQ 747
There was a short taxi to the runway as we passed by jumbo jets operated by SQ and the A380 by Qantas, in addition to an Emirates 777 being parked remotely. We were airborne by 15:15 and had a nice view of a quarry in Oakland Junction at the North of Melbourne and the Greenvale Reservoir before cloud cover shielded the rest of the landscape.
Take-off from Tullamarine Airport
View upon take-off
Greenvale reservoir in north of Melbourne
As we reached cruising altitude, the captain was quick to reassure passengers with onward connecting flights from Sydney. In addition he also apologized for the delay stating that it was due to some miscommunication in scheduling of crew members. He also mentioned about the light refreshments and snacks that will be served. In business class, there was a choice of carrot soup or smoked salmon antipasti platter. I got the carrot soup since I was craving for something warm that day and wasn't disappointed, and I got more of the apple strawberry juice to go along with the meal. Bread was offered along with tea and coffee. Business class passengers also had a choice of wine to go along with their meal.
Cruising across State of Victoria
Inflight meal service
Carrot soup served with chocolate muffin, bread and crackers
The nice weather meant a short flight and I didnt manage to finish my meal since I was too full and the captain had already announced start of descent before I got to return the tray back to the crew. The flight attendants serving the route was friendly and had the same standard as that serving the A380 route from LAX. As I glanced out of the window, I noticed that the scenery in New South Wales looks a lot greener than that in the State of Victoria. There seems to be more green landscaping such as forest or bush cover compared to the arid brown landscape around Victoria. One could also take sight of three lakes on the approach to Sydney with one being Lake Woronora. I got to know the name of the lake from Google Map (the wonders of technology these days!)
Lake Woronora on approach to Sydney
Sydney and its suburbs