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#1
25th January 2012, 08:55 PM
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Trip Report: VC & JQ BNE-MEL-BNE (photos)
Hi All,
Last Saturday I went down to Melbourne for the day to do some spotting and to try out to new airlines I have never flown on before, Air Australia and Jetstar. Introduction When Air Australia announced they would commence flights between Brisbane and Melbourne-Tullamarine I decided I would give them a go. I started looking at dates in January and decided I would do the trip on Saturday January 21. Air Australia only fly BNE-MEL once a day on weekends and the Saturday flight is a morning departure so I would fly with them to MEL. So I just had to choose my flight back, Tiger was the cheapest but I decided to go with Jetstar, as I had never flown with them before and it was only like $10 more. So my flights were booked, I would be flying on Air Australia flight VC562 to Melbourne departing Brisbane at 0710 and arriving at 1040. And I would be on Jetstar flight JQ566 to Brisbane departing Melbourne at 1800 and arriving at 1915. I couldn’t wait to try out both airlines! Brisbane Airport 4:30am wakeup call and left the house a bit after 5am. Got to the airport at about 5:30am, traffic was very light. Went to the Air Australia check in desks as they don’t have web check in yet. Only took a minute to check in and then I was going through security and up to the boarding gates. First aircraft that caught my eye was Jetstar A320 VH-VGA, first time I’ve seen an A320 in the revised livery. Then Qantas B744ER VH-OEE arrived from Dallas, and then I saw my ride to Melbourne waiting at the gate, it was VH-YQC which is in the wonderful Air Australia livery. VH-VGA  My ride to Melbourne  With still another hour and a half till my flight was scheduled to depart I decided to have a walk around the terminal. First I went to the Virgin end where I found VH-VUF, VH-YID, VH-ZPR and VH-FVL looking great in the Virgin Australia livery, also saw VH-VUJ, VH-VBO, VH-ZPD and a few other Virgin aircraft. VH-FVL  Then over to the Qantas end where I found VH-OGO and parked next to her, the only Aboriginal painted aircraft in the fleet VH-VXB ‘Yananyi Dreaming’. Were also about 5 Dash 8’s and 5 B737’s. Yananyi, unfortunately I couldn’t get an unobstructed view of her.  After having a look around the terminal I just sat down at my gate waiting for the flight to board. Looked like a light load but after 6:30am more people started to show up and when boarding started it looked like it would be a full flight! January 21, 2012 Air Australia VC562 BNE-MEL VH-YQC A320 Seat 08A Because Air Australia use the common user satellite at Brisbane Airport all passengers need to walk on the tarmac  Managed to get some good shots while walking out.Walking out to YQC  Up the stairs, just love there livery!  Taxiing out to RWY19  Taxiing past ‘The Loop’, with a few spotters out photographing us taxiing past  Took off on RWY19 and climbed up to 36 000ft. Didn’t take any photos of the departure or on the way to MEL as I was facing the sun. Bought a chicken wrap which was very nice and entertained myself on the flight with my iPod. Was a pretty short flight, only 2 hours. Started taking photos again as we went under the clouds. Finals for RWY16  Nearly down  Slowing down with a Philippine Airlines B773 about to take off on RWY27  Qantas A380 taxiing to the international 
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#2
25th January 2012, 08:56 PM
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Taxiing
 T2 International  Melbourne Airport So after a great flight from Brisbane I now had about 7 hours of spotting in Melbourne, first I went to the long term car park. First aircraft I saw arrived was Virgin Blue E170 VH-ZHF, the last time I would see her   VH-YQC, VH-JQL and VH-VQI  Tiger Tower  Qantas Airbus A380 VH-OQD - QF6024 MEL-SYD  Singapore Airlines B744 9V-SPJ – SQ237 SIN-MEL  Garuda Indonesia Airbus A330-300 PK-GPF –GA717 MEL-CGK  Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300 9V-SYI – SQ238 MEL-SIN  Air China Airbus A330-200 B-6130 – CA178 MEL-PVG-PEK  Qantas Airbus A380 VH-OQE – QF93 MEL-LAX  Royal Brunei Boeing 777-200ER V8-BLD being towed to the International  China Southern Airbus A330-200 B-6058 – CZ344 MEL-CAN 
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#3
25th January 2012, 08:57 PM
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Aircraft outside Hangars
 Vietnam Airlines Airbus A330-200 VN-A376 – VN780 MEL-SGN  Singapore Airlines Cargo Boeing 747-400F 9V-SFM – SQC7294 MEL-AKL   China Eastern Airbus A330-300 B-6120 – MU738 MEL-PVG  Virgin Australia Boeing 777-300ER VH-VPD – VA11 MEL-LAX  Jetstar Airbus A330-200 VH-EBS – JQ7 MEL-SIN-PEK  View from the long term car park  After spending about 2 hours at the long term car park I went back to T3 and found a good spot. Royal Brunei Boeing 777-200ER V8-BLD & Cathay Pacific Airbus A330-300 B-HLP  United Boeing 747-400 N119UA, looks massive up close! UA840 MEL-SYD-LAX   Thai Airways Boeing 777-200 HS-TJG – TG466 BKK-MEL  Royal Brunei Boeing 777-200ER V8-BLD – BI54 MEL-BWN  Virgin Blue E190 
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#4
25th January 2012, 08:58 PM
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Virgin Australia Boeing 737-800 VH-YVC
 Malaysian Airlines Airbus A330-300 9M-MTA – MH148 MEL-KUL  Cathay Pacific Airbus A330-300 B-HLP  Virgin Australia Boeing 737-800 VH-VOK looking nice after recently getting repainted  Jetstar Airbus A330-200 VH-EBJ – JQ35 SYD-MEL  Air New Zealand Boeing 777-300ER ZK-OKP – NZ123 AKL-MEL (about 5-6 hours late)  RAAF BBJ A36-001  Air Mauritius Airbus A340-300 3B-NAU – MK9942 MRU-SYD-MEL (about 4 hours late)   After Air Mauritius arrived I walked over to T1 for my flight back to Brisbane, since I had already checked in online I just had to go through security. A little under 2 hours til my flight home left so I had a look around the terminal. 4 Jetstar tails (VH-VQB, VH-VGO, VH-VQJ and VH-VWZ)  Qantas Boeing 767-338ER VH-OGG  Jetstar Airbus A321 VH-VWZ  So after walking around I went to my gate, my plane would be arriving at 1700 from the Sunshine Coast. I watched the SQ B744, NZ B773 and QF A380 depart while waiting and then a Jetstar A320 came around the corner and pulled into my gate, and it was VH-VGZ! Which unfortunately recently had her Quiksilver livery removed so she is just in the normal livery now. VH-VGZ at the gate  At 1730 boarding commenced
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#5
25th January 2012, 08:58 PM
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January 21, 2012
Jetstar JQ566 MEL-BNE VH-VGZ A320 Seat 08A In Seat 8A  Lined up on RWY27  Climbing out of MEL  Passing Calder Park, looks pretty dry down there  Again, no photo till we were under the clouds as I was facing the sun again. Bought a chicken wrap again, definitely prefer the ones on Jetstar The same type as Tiger sell on their flights. Climbed up to 39 000ft.Starting our descent  Over Brisbane’s Southside  Right turn  On finals for RWY01 passing the city   Short finals passing the international terminal  Reverse thrust  VGZ will soon be back off to MEL  And that was the end of my second Melbourne daytrip! Conclusion Awesome trip, Air Australia and Jetstar were both great and I will definitely fly with them again. Seats were comfortable on both airlines and leg room was good. Spotting in Melbourne was great, a lot of airlines BNE doesn’t see. Next daytrip for me is in March to Rockhampton and Mackay , will be flying on QF2352 from BNE-ROK on an Alliance Fokker 100, then QF2308 from ROK-MKY on a Dash 8-300 and then QF2517 MKY-BNE on a Dash 8-Q400, three new aircraft types for me!Thanks for reading!
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#6
25th January 2012, 10:51 PM
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Great pics! I am just wandering, how long SQ will be sending the 7474 down there,
I certainly would like to go down there for a day trip before there gone.
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#7
26th January 2012, 04:25 PM
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Quote:
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#8
27th January 2012, 10:10 PM
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A320
When does the air australia interior look like? Dark grey like jetstar or what?
Interesting photos and looks like you were down the end of the virgin terminal as when the big internantional aircraft pass they are quite close to the window.
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#9
28th January 2012, 12:05 AM
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Thanks Stefan, I'm not looking forward to that.
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