Flight details:
Flight number: D7 2703
Day: 29 Nov 2010
Seat: Row 15. The best seat.
Scheduled takeoff: 0905
Actual takeoff: 0937
Going under the OOL runway on the Tugun Bypass to the airport.
And so, another year rolled by for me. The annual trip back home. Through truth to be told, the definition of “home” has become somewhat different for me over the years. Where is “home” really these days?
Still, I was given the opportunity to fly back to Malaysia, and it is very hard to say no, especially when it is all being paid for you. This time through, I had company back with me. My dear sister would be my company on this trip. It was a nice change from flying solo that I’m used to.
Air Asia X (D7) is the crown jewel of Gold Coast Airport (OOL). Every time OOL Chief Operating Officer Paul Donovan appears on a natty press release disguised as “news” in the print media, he’s always talking glowingly about D7, and OOL print advertisements portray OOL as some kind of strategic air hub. To be fair, it is an important destination for freight and mail. However, I’m not totally convinced that OOL can be described as a (low-cost) “gateway to London and more”. (as it is described in some promotional material)
Still, at A$332 OOL-KUL one way per person, I was willing to consider trying low-cost long-haul, if only to see what it is like.
My first view of OOL from the chartered bus.
But first, was getting to OOL itself. As the airport’s name suggests, it is not in Brisbane. In fact, its right down at Coolangatta, at the QLD-NSW border. Part of the runway is technically in NSW (not that it matters, as aviation is a Commonwealth matter in Australia. The state borders don’t quite apply.), and if you use the Tugun Bypass to get to the airport itself (highly recommended. Its much faster than getting off the Pacific Motorway and going through Tugun), you actually go into NSW before going back into QLD.
My journey started at 4.30am AEST. Still tired and more than a little apprehensive of the next 12 hours, we took a taxi down to Roma St station to catch the AA Express Bus that goes from Brisbane City to OOL for D7 flights. The bus was supposed to come at 5.10am, but only came at 5.35am.
By this time through, it was bloody bright, as it is in “we don’t want daylight saving because the cows will be confused and the curtains will fade” Queensland. It was surreal to see the CBD completely deserted in the bright glare of the early day. One could almost believe that they were the last people living on earth.
At this point I must say AA Express could do with some signage on where their bus picks up passengers at Roma St. All I had was “Cnr of Roma St & Parkland Blvd”, which isn’t as descriptive as it sounds. For a while I was worried that we were waiting at the wrong place. Miss the bus and there goes any chance of catching the flight.
After picking up 4 passengers at Roma St, the bus made its way to 2 other pick-up destinations in Brisbane before hitting the Pacific Motorway down to OOL. As expected, the whole bus was filled with Asians. Tried to get some sleep, but couldn’t, due to the glare of the low morning sun. Took about 1 hr 25 minutes to get to the airport. Averaged 90km/h.
Helpfully dropped at the international "side".
OOL isn’t much to write about. Its a regional airport which just happens to be within somewhat of a reasonable distance of Brisbane City. It is convenient for tourists whose destination is the Coast through. Which is why Jetstar still has their flights to Tokyo and Osaka out of OOL.
Its just a single story building. Most of its traffic is not passenger, and even cargo planes prefer to land in BNE and truck down to the coast. In fact, I don’t think OOL was even designed for international flights. The current terminal has their immigration checks tacked onto one end of the airport. It is very unnatural and looks like a bit of an afterthought. Which it probably is.
4 Check-in counters for this flight
The landside of OOL is reasonably spacious, and some thought has been put to make it look presentable. Check-in counters are sensibly arranged and people are engineered to them in a proper fashion. Which is probably more than I can say of KUL’s MTB.
It looked like a full flight, and the queue was a bit slow moving, partially due to the need to weigh every single damn thing the passengers were bringing with them.
We managed to check-in, and decided to mill around the landside before going in. With hindsight, it probably was not the best choice, as due to immigration (only 4 desks) and the need to go through 2 separate security checks meant we did not have much time on the airside.
OOL seems to be a reasonably active airport. For a “regional” airport, it actually has more traffic and passenger movements than KCH, which is the major hub for Sarawak.
Much of the flights are rather early in the day. Not too many flights that depart later in the night. D7 2702 is the flight that brings the Air Asia X plane to OOL, and the same aircraft we would be using to fly back with. A 90 minute turn-around time it would seem.
Overall there is nothing much to write about OOL. 3 pictures capture the entire landside. Most basic airport facilities are there, toilets are clean, food range limited; prices not too bad. But little else. It could be worst I suppose.
View of the terminal apron.
Interesting thing about OOL is there were no visible airbridges. I suppose it makes sense as all but one of the commercial passenger airlines that serve OOL are low-cost airlines. And I suppose the weather in that part of the world ensures you’re not missing too much without an aerobridge.
Pushback was rather late. The captain attributed the delay to people being stuck in immigration. Certainly from my window seat I did see more than a few makcik’s slowly plodding along to the plane.
OOL's control tower?
I suppose one perk of being in a regional airport is that traffic tends to be light. There are no plane queue’s to wait in, as I usually do in SIN or BNE. We were on the runway in no time, and before long we were in the air.
Part of the Tugun Bypass at the bottom right of the picture. Goes right under the runway.
No, these are not flooded streets. Housing near the airport, complete with their own marina.
So long Australia! See you soon!
No, these are not shots of a live action AIR adaptation. :P
Was very bumpy on the way out from OOL. Quite a fair amount of cloud cover, and I was kinda glad once we broke through the clouds. Unfortunately, it was as glaring as it was on the ground, not to mention everything was masked by the clouds, which made for very dull viewing.
Meal time.
Like any good long-haul flyer, we pre-booked our meals. Unfortunately thanks to the online check-in system, me and my sister were put on opposite ends of the plane. Don’t ask me how. Them seats were given to us when I did an online check-in, and there was no way to change them.
On the other hand, it gave me the emergency exit seat. :D
International Meal.
I must say it was very disappointing. Presentation looked promising, but I found the meal very bland and uninspiring. At least the lamb (or at least that’s what they claimed it was.) was not dry, but overall the portions were noticeably less than on legacy carriers.
There was also no salt and/or pepper available, even after requesting, hoping to at least get some seasoning. Welcome to low-cost land I suppose.
Don't get the clean finish fool you. I was still hungry after this point.
Being a low-cost carrier, and not having pre-booked any in-flight "entertainment”, I had to use my instincts to kill time for the next 8 hours. First up: legroom.
Okay, it is a little bit unfair as a comparison, as I did have the emergency exit row. Even if you took into account the bulge that is the life raft, it was still a generous amount of space, and thus I could stretch out a bit.
The seats barely reclined through, and sleep proved rather elusive.
My neighbours seem to be a travelling group of 3. Unfortunately it seems they only got 2 seats in the row of their desire, and a 3rd member, who kept coming to my row, was seated elsewhere. Maybe its just me. but I must say I got quite a negative vibe from them, as if I was to blame for not being able to be seated together. Hey, like the online check-in gave me a choice!
At least it turned out to be a happy accident. 2nd time I’ve managed to snag a emergency exit row.
Went to the back of the plane to talk with my sister. Was surprised at the pitch. 29’’. It wasn’t any tighter or more cramped than Qantas’ A333’s. Not sure if this D7 A333 belonged to a legacy carrier in the past, but D7’s seat pitch, even in the normal rows, aren’t any worst than Qantas of Air New Zealand’s A320’s.
The front of the plane was quite tight, but at the back there were enough empty seats for people to sprawl about and put their things to gain some space. One person even managed to curl up and sleep on 2 seats in the middle row!
So not the fullest flight I’ve been on, but still rather full. Clearly the loads are there to make it viable. Daily.
Boredom was the order of the day. Call me spoilt, but IFE’s are mandatory in this day and age. As I mentioned, sleep proved elusive. I managed to nod off in bits and pieces, but overall everyone around me seemed and looked half-dead.
I also have to mention that the Air Asia X staff were very stiff. This is not to say they provided bad service, but my attempts to strike up a conversation with them were very unsettling, in a way. The answers were rather robotic, as if they were speaking off a script. It was borderline unfriendliness.
Are you sure Tony?
Admittedly, it was a rather multinational crew. I saw 2 Thai’s, 1 Burmese and Malaysian respectively. (Air Asia X crew members have the flag of their nationality printed on their name tags. If nothing else, their names and the way they speak give their origin away)
I’m still not bowed over by the whole “MH is Malaysian Hospitality” thing, but I now appreciate the superior service levels of some full-service airlines. The jury’s still out through on whether its worth it.
With little else to do, I was reduced to reading their magazines (questionable English in some parts) and reading everything on their menu. And mentally ranting and raving at the completely rip-off prices.
For goodness sake, it costs RM3 for a bottle of 200ml water. For a hydroholic (that, and I’m very bad with dry environments) like me, it was painful. I suppose its their way of saying “Our fares are cheap enough for you to have enough spare change to buy overpriced water”, but seriously, if a Spanish judge can rule charging passengers for the right to check-in at airports is illegal, I’m waiting for the EU to make it illegal to charge for plain water on long-haul flights.
D7's in-flight magazine, more ad's than content. Yes, I was reduced to reading the ad's, even those in Chinese, just to pass time.
There were a few gems through, like a part on weird customer queries.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the coin…….
First sight of Malaysian land.
It was largely sea along the whole flight, and that was if I could see anything. Heavy cloud cover obscured everything. And as I had no IEF system, and no map, I never had a clue as to where we actually were, or our flight path.
The flight was very bumpy through in the final 3 hours or so. My guess is we went through the southern bit of Borneo Island, which is notorious for turbulence. Everytime I fly over that area it will be bumpy.
The flight was also longer than expected. We were in the air for close to 9 hours. I could feel the plane struggle a little, as if it had trouble moving forward. As I suspected, the captain came over the PA system to announce that we were flying against headwind, and thus would be a little late.
Coming into Malaysia was also bumpy. It was cloud cover the whole time, and rain lashed on the plane. It didn’t help I wasn’t feeling too well from all that turbulence over the last few hours. With a sigh of resignation, I mentally welcomed myself back to the hot and humid and wet and sticky tropics.
Smoke trail from some plantation coming into KUL.
Happily, as we started to land the weather cleared up, and at least I could see something. Including open burning by plantations.
One thing I’ve always noted is how well planned west Malaysia, or at least the south Selangor region, looks from the air. The oil palm trees are in neat rows. The highways look magnificent from the air. Whole townships (Nilai?) in grids. So why is it on the ground it looks and feels like one big mess?
Eventually, we touched down, and the familiar sight of the KLIA cargo holds brought relief knowing that I’m home. Despite everything, home is Malaysia, for that is the only place I’ve ever known.
The ground was still wet when we touched down, and I had to avoid small puddles of water getting into the LCC terminal. Overall, I was just glad the flight was over.
Final thoughts:
I’m still not sold on long-haul low-cost. Clearly there is a market for it, and D7 cleverly fills the void. It is the business decision, and there is no issue with that. There is demand, and there are no lack of low-cost carriers ready to supply.
I can live with having to wake up at 4am to take a bus down to a airport 80km away. I can entertain myself for 8 hours listening to the entire CLANNAD soundtrack. (Which for the record is only 3.5 hours long) I can put up with bland tasting food. I can even overlook surly cabin staff who sound like they’re reeling off the script book they memorised during cabin attendant school.
However, I draw the line at paying RM3 for 200ml of water. Every 2 hours. For someone like me who is very susceptible to dry environments, it can be a fair bit just ensuring you don’t arrive with rashes and cracked lips. Air Asia knows that people have no choice, as they can no longer bring water bottles across security, and OOL does not have a water fountain at the airside. The low-cost carriers will be lobbying hard to say it is “too soon” for allowing liquids on flights.
Will I fly them again? Maybe, as a last resort.
