Flew the inaugural QF1956 today as above. Opportunistic mini TR:
seated 5A. 40 odd minutes late departing, as were many of the other inaugural flights operated by QQ on behalf of QF on the centre corridor today. Scheduled 1h 50min flight time blew out to 2h 25min, attributed to strong headwinds
3 on the flight deck, 3 cabin crew.
Loading: 7/10 in J, including a plain clothed but not so secret shopper in 4E who got up, mask on chin after departure, chatted with the cabin manager, helped configure the J service cart and pottered in the forward galley before consuming a J meal and industriously recording the performance of the cabin crew on multiple QFLink - badged assessment forms. Approx 70/84 in Y.
J cabin service started almost 1 hour into the flight although those pax sat looking at the wine on the cart for a good 30 min before the bottles were opened. Choice of an egg & beetroot salad or a ‘traditional’ pork sausage roll. Upon enquiry by 2F ‘no spirits in J’
, but the sparkling Grant Burge Pinot Chardonnay was of course available along with a 2017 Yarra Valley Chardy and a 2014 SA Shiraz.
Y service- packeted cheese and crackers +/- selection of non alcoholic hot or cold drinks; QF centenary serviettes. Cheerful FA’s volunteered that ‘this is a bit different, we normally do mining runs’ (!)
2 pax in Y presumably with status were offered a complimentary glass of wine after the J service was completed.
No IFE or wifi obviously but otherwise a perfectly adequate flight overall, notwithstanding the NT fare tax
A new line in the Landing announcement: ‘QantasLink acknowledges the traditional owners of this land’. A thoughtful touch IMO, particularly at the start of reconciliation week. Will be interesting to see if it lasts.
From crew (as yet unverified from publically available info): 5 aircraft from the QQ fleet of 30 E190s are nominally available for the Centre runs (3 scheduled to operate and 2 in reserve). VH-UYO was originally to operate this flight back north but developed a tech issue on the ASP-ADL sector earlier.
Other QQ E190s have apparently been doing charters for Air North ex DRW/CNS