06 August 2012
Singapore Airlines
SQ 461
Male (MLE) - Singapore (SIN)
A330-300
9V-STH
Economy Class
World's Best Airline vs World's Most Awarded Airline
9V-STH would be flying me back. Second time on her!
Boarded the plane via stairs again. The set of crew on this flight was definitely much better than the incoming flight. Warm, genuine smiles and proactive assistance during boarding and more interaction with passengers. This should be the SQ that I know of!
2 Mega Maldives B767s were parked beside.
At the gate. Hot towels, menus and headphones were distributed with smiles. Flight time was announced to be a longer 4h35m due to strong headwinds.
All passengers were boarded by 1440hrs, 10min before STD of 1450hrs, but the captai came on the announced a 10min delay in pushback due to single runway operations restrictions at Male. As there were no taxiways in Male, we needed to allow some arrival planes to land before we can push back. When the slight delay was announced, the crew immediately came around with a water service, which was much appreciated with the hot weather. Conversely, no such service was conducted on the previous flight even though the delay stretched to almost half hour.
At exactly 1500hrs, we started our pushback. It was weird yet amazing to be pushed back directly onto the runway! There was absolutely no space for our A330 to taxi past the parked aircraft on the ramp.
Engines started up and we backtracked along the runway. Spotted a few planes that had just landed, including A320s of Etihad and Sri Lankan.
And an Emirates B772.
Taxiing along the runway.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDcTvNZsDf8
Just beside the sea!
Made a U-turn at the end of the runway and departed from Rwy18.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPwkxihZINc
Blue skies and blue sea....
Last few glimpse of Maldives atolls...
