Air Niugini

Today I am off to Papua New Guinea again for a few days. As long as they are short trips (shorter than a week) I do not mind really. But I cannot say that I was thrilled by the idea of flying with Air Niugini. But in the end it was an uneventfull and even an interesting flight.

Off

Today I am taking things back up where I had left them a couple of days ago. My last picture was about flight tracking this one will be about travelling. . I have been 'off' the internet for a couple of days due to lack of time. Busy, busy, busy I was... And tonight I am 'off' to Sydney for an extended week-end. It is good to take a break from time to time, isn't it? The only thing is the notion of distances here in Australia which is pretty different from the notion we have back in Europe. Where would I be if I were to fly in between 4 to 5 hours away from Paris? Cairo? Moscow? Nouakchott? Here, if I fly for that duration I am still in Australia...

Flight Tracking

When not for me it is for someone I am expecting, but I am quite familiar with any flight tracking system. They all are different though. My favourite actually is the one from the Melbourne airport that tracks all the flights in real time on a map. As a result you know exactly where the planes are. But this morning I had to track flight SQ231 landing in Sydney at 1105 and Kingsford Smith Airport is unfortunately not offering this service. Anyway, being Singapore Airlines and being Australia the plane landed exactly on time (OK, I admit, it is not always the case but sometimes… which remind me by the way that on a flight between Cairns and Darwin I arrived 50 minutes early a couple of weeks ago! That had to be my personal record for a commercial short haul).
http://www.melbourneairport.com.au/flight_radar/

Les Petites Maisons

We went to Washington and came back from New York on KLM since there was a nice promotion. At the end of each flight the flight attendants present its “WorldBusiness Class” passengers with a choice of blue-and-white Delftware houses. They are porcelain reproductions of old Dutch canal houses or from its overseas dependencies and a new model is issued every year since the creation of KLM. There are now 89 of these porcelains filled with the Dutch liquor called Bols jenever. A nice touch if you actually ask me even though if you are a frequent flier with KLM you surely don’t know what to do with them after a while. (On the picture models 11, 33, 52 &53).

SQ332 - Choose your seat!

Last time I took SQ332 between Singapore and Paris was nearly 3 months ago. If you remember I was raving about the quality of service and the comfort of the flight due to the lack of passengers (see here). Well, I was far from guessing it could be even better (for the passenger but worse for the airline). Today, the flight had to be my best flying experience ever (and I can say I have flown quite a bit over the past 20 years!). 7 passengers in between first and Biz (for 50 seats) and 24 passengers in Economy (for 228 seats). It really gives you the impression of flying your own private plane which is a delight on such a long haul flight. I wonder how long SQ will maintain this day flight for? I have always suspected that the people travelling for Business purposes were choosing to fly the night flight in order to get a full day at work so this day flight has never really been full but never that empty neither! I also hear rumours that SQ might replace the B777-300ER by an Airbus380 on this route shorlty. If that's the case they will definitely merge those two flights into one. That's sad because I find it to be the perfect timing. Departing Singapore by 2 pm and arriving by 9 pm in Paris on the same day is just perfect.

Chef's Special

Despite the fact Singapore Airlines screen up to 500 inflight entertainment possibilities I usually never use it since I spend most of my flights sleeping. I might also be picky but there always is at least one or two movies I wouldn't mind watching. From their latest selection I was pleased to see a Spanish movie called 'Fuera de Carta' from Director Nacho Garcia Velílla starring Javier Cámara. It is a perfect Spanish comedy playing with clichés as only spanish can without being boring or too vulgar and remaining very witty. I am not sure which countries this movie has been screened at but if your local cinema happens to screen it you will definitely spend a very enjoyable hour and half.

Oh joy!

I personally find long day flights to be a bit more tiring than night flights as my body clock usually is not in a sleeping mode. But that is valid for long flights like the Singapore-Paris leg that is nearly 14 hours. The plane was really empty today which made such a difference. Only a handful of people in Biz and maybe 50 passengers in Economy. That gave us the impression of flying a private B777 with more air hostesses than you could ask for. As a result the service was even better than usual and I can say I had the best beef in the sky ever. So tender. The food generally tends to be better out of Singapore rather than out of Paris strangely enough. Overall, a very enjoyable flight.

Singapore - Perth

Today is not Friday but here is another airplane picture. I am on my way from Singapore to Perth (just briefly) and it is for work this time. So as usual, when it is work related, there is no much to talk about. Just the time to spend a short night not too far from the airport and I am off to Darwin in the morning. I promise to try and post something else than a plane picture tomorrow!

Night flight

I really do not need a flat bed to sleep on a plane. From Economy (as long as I have a window seat to rest my head on) to Business Class (except on the fantastic fully flat bed fitted on the B777-300ER that connect Paris to Singapore on SQ for example where nobody would have any excuse not to sleep) I have no problem sleeping on non fully reclinable seats. It always makes my partner jealous (not being able to even sleep in First Class). Personally, literally 5 minutes into the flight I was deeply sleeping. The flight was very bumpy but it barely woke me up on a couple of occasions. Since, the SING-MEL flight is only just over 7 hours long we were given the choice between a supper or a breakfast. I took the breakie and only woke up because I could smell the food... Being on the top floor of the MegaTop also helped as I find the cabin much more quiet and 'intimate'.

The Friday picture

If you have checked my past Friday blog entries you might have seen quite a generous number of airplanes. Today, I am not screening a plane I actually took to spend a weekend elsewhere but an aircraft I saw preparing to land at Changi. Indeed, I boarded the A380 some long time back on a flight from Sydney to Singapore (actually on its fourth day of operation) and I was rather disappointed by the experience as there was nothing special (except more seats than you usually have on a smaller plane). To be honest, if you give me the choice, I'd rather take a more 'intimate' plane. That said, I am always impressed by this flying beast when seen from outside.

Blogging on Fridays

Monday is my blog day for the Record of the Week. But you might have noticed that Fridays are turning into airplane days! Sorry about this but it is the day I tend to go somewhere else. Even though I am somehow always somewhere else. I just had the time to come back from Indonesia this afternoon, branch to the office, out for dinner, back to the appartment to unpack and repack, have a quick sleep and I'm off to Hong Kong with JetStar coming back on Sunday through Macau. Have a nice week-end!

Air India Express

Just the time to branch back to Singapore, organise a couple of things in the office, unpack and repack my bag and I am off to Chennai (Madras) in Tamil Nadu with another budget airline. How do they honestly keep their prices so low? There is not a single day without reading reports of the bad state of the airline industry but passengers continue to be able to enjoy amazing fares. Not that I am complaining as it is not so often the general public can take advantage of this kind of situation. I don't think I will be posting any trip report as some other blogs do it so well but I will surely be posting a couple of pictures of Chennai even though I will not have much time to visit the place. Talk to you tomorrow from yet another place. I am taking off now!

Fly me to...

I am not particularly a Low Cost airlines enthusiast as I like to travel comfortably (even when I am generally sleeping the whole flight through) but for short hauls I do not mind paying the bare minimum to get the bare minimum as long as I am taken to my destination timely and safely. Compared to all the no frill airlines I have taken so far, AirAsia has to be my best experience: new Airbus A320, clean interior, friendly staff, organised check-in, departure ahead of schedule, smooth ride, professional crew, etc... I must admit I have been pleasantly surprised. The only downpoint is that there are hardly any flights out of Singapore, therefore I had to take the pain to cross the border at Woodland by public transport and get taxied all the way to Senai (Johor Barhu) airport. But my trip to Borneo remains more than half the cost compared to a departure from Singapore.

Goodbye Paris - Hello Paris!

I left Paris again today. It has been a fantastic week even though I unfortunately did not have the time to do half the things I had planned and meet all my friends. Is it because of the level of oxygen but up in the sky the emotions are always different. I tend to be more sensible. It usually also is a time for reflection. As I sleep pretty well in the plane I normally do not have much time for a movie but I had a couple of hours to kill for breakfast and decided to give the Cédric Klapisch movie 'Paris' a try. And I enjoyed it in state not too dissimilar to saudade. A beautiful depiction of Paris serving as a background for some captivating intertwinned life stories. The disease of the main character gives him a different view of the people he comes across. I could draw a parrallel with the way the distance and / or altitude makes me reflect on things. I wish I could have stayed in Paris a little bit longer but I know I will be back to enjoy the city again soon.

Low Cost Airlines

If I would not fly a low cost airline on long distances it does not really bother me when it comes to short 2 or 3 hours flights maximum. But I will still be pickish. I already scared myself flying some weird airlines in Africa or in Indonesia. I have recently been flying on SilkAir which is not really a low cost but more like a regional subsidy of Singapore Airlines and I flew Tiger Airways to places like Phuket in the past. A few weeks ago when I saw free flights advertised in my morning paper I could not resist and immediately booked a couple of seats for us. Free surely never really means 'entirely free' as you still have to pay the taxes but it is always interesting to be flying to places like Bangkok for a fraction of what it would cost on the national carrier.

11300 kilometers away...

It is always amazing how relatively quickly and smoothly we can cover such distances. I know it has been a while since airlines have been able to cover lots of ground (the longest flight currently being the incredible direct Singapore-New York flight by Singapore Airlines) but we always expect progress. When the A380 started its service I was more than happy to enjoy the supposedly airlines revolution, but a trip in that plane quickly made me realise it was only an advantage for the airlines not for the customer unless you are flying First Class. Economy and Business Class remain exactly the same except you are sharing the cabins with many more passengers. A real revolution for the passenger would have been to double the speed. Why didn't we make any progress in that field since the Concorde? Airlines are fast to blame the fuel efficiency / consumption for this but the truth probably lies more into the fact that they are more than happy to get super jumbos transporting masses rather than smaller jets transporting their customers faster.

Charles De Gaulle - Changi

Back on the other way. I left cold and grey Paris in a bit of a messy situation. It took ages to go through the immigration, there was a strike of the cleaning personnel who were demonstrating while banging drums, the travellator going to the boarding satellite was out of order, the toilets were blocked... Quite the usual stuff. It is somehow a sharp contrast with the way things are organised here in Singapore. It took me less than 5 minutes from the moment I deboarded the plane until the time I caught a taxi out of the airport.