Flying home on Jetstar’s workhorse
After a very, very, brief 5 hour visit to the capital of South Australia (including a visit to the South Australian Aviation Museum), I headed back to Adelaide Airport to fly home on the evening Jetstar flight to Hobart, onboard one of their ubiquitous Airbus A320-200s. Earlier in the day I had flown up on the innagural QantasLink/Alliance Airlines flight from Hobart, and you can read that trip report here.
| Flight Details | |
|---|---|
| Airline | Jetstar Australia |
| Aircraft Type | Airbus A320-200 |
| Registration | VH-VGA |
| Route | Adelaide to Hobart |
| Flight Number | JQ681 |
| Date | 24/09/2021 |
After taking the Jetbus back to Adelaide Airport, I had hoped to check out the Vickers Vimy preserved on airport grounds, and have a walk around the carpark to get some shots of the parked cargo and charter aircraft around the place, however, a series of delays throughout the day meant I had to go straight through to check-in. Jetstar check-in at Adelaide is machine only, and the boarding passes provided are of the flimsy receipt-paper type, which is always a little disappointing. The terminal itself, on the other hand, is absolutely incredible, without a doubt the most clean, tidy, organised and planespotter friendly airport I’ve had the opportunity to travel though. Opened in 2005, the terminal features huge clean windows, with views right across the airport, ideal for planespotting and photography, and is well laid out.
Qantas Boeing 737-800 VH-VZB 
Alliance Airlines Fokker F70 VH-NUU 
Rex Saab 340B VH-ZLR 
RFDS Pilatus PC-12 VH-FXJ 
Virgin Australia Boeing 737-700 VH-VBY 
Alliance Airlines Fokker F100 VH-XWN
Although in the end I only had around 40 minutes of planespotting time at the airport I managed to get a few alright shots, including some pretty rare aircraft. Although I didn’t get the chance to photograph one of Alliance’s Fokker F50 turboprops, I did snap their F70 and F100s.
I waited till the very last minute to board in the hope that I’d get to photograph the arriving Cobham Avro RJ100, and although I missed it, it taxied in and parked right next to VH-VGA just as I was walking round the back to board. As you can see above, I tried, and failed to get a photo after boarding, but it was nice to see a BAe still flying in passenger configuration, as they’re increasingly rare these days.
The taxi out and takeoff from Adelaide’s runway 23 were nothing special, and we were soon climbing up through the clouds towards Tassie.
As I had been too focused at photographing as many planes as possible at Adelaide, and the single open food place was right down the other end of the terminal I decided to eat onboard, and had a fairly bog standard ham and cheese toastie. As the plane was completely full, including a youth rugby team, service took quite a while, but they got there eventually.
I spent much of the rest of the flight reading, and enjoying the sunset over the Bass Strait. Before long it was pitch black, possibly snowing, and we were on approach to Hobart. The landing on Runway 30 was a little bumpy, but we soon taxiied in and parked alongside another JQ A320, a QF 737 and a VA 737.
Overall it wasn’t a bad flight, nor was it particularly great, it was just Jetstar, although I had a pretty awesome time in Adelaide and will definitely head back there as soon as I can. I record all off my flights on my GoPro so I highly recommend you watch the below video, and checkout the rest of my channel
I hope this has been an enjoyable read, and I hope you’ll go read some of my other posts, and chuck me a follow on Instagram and YouTube if you’re new here.