Farewell to the Jetstar A330s

Today marks the last day flying in Jetstar colours for the Airbus A330-200. After today all Jetstar's medium and long haul flying will be performed by the Boeing 787-8.

The event certainly won't mark the end of the A330 in Australian skies. Many airlines use the aircraft on Australian routes. Most of the Jetstar A330s themselves originally came from Jetstar's parent Qantas and are returning to the airline to be repainted in the white and red.

I rather like the A330 in Jetstar orange and silver colours. The A330-200 is an attractive aircraft anyway.

Parked at Gate 31 at Sydney Airport

By my count I've flown in Jetstar A330s twenty-one times in seven years. Almost all of those flights were to Japan, although there was one return trip on the now defunct Sydney to Kuala Lumpur route and another on the similarly cancelled Singapore to Osaka direct flight.

So plenty of happy memories there for me!

Despite this, I'm not unhappy about the change to the Boeing 787-8. My experience this year on Jetstar 787 flights has been a good one and they are attractive looking aircraft in their own right. I'm looking forward to many more years of overseas adventures with Jetstar.

A Jetstar Airbus A330 is towed to the gate at Sydney Airport

The economy cabin in a Jetstar A330

VH-EBJ was equipped with seat back screens, but most aircraft were not. We flew on it between Singapore and Osaka.

VH-EBC was the odd one out, painted white in this hybrid livery.

Onwards and upwards!

The Boeing 787-8 has replaced the A330 at Jetstar.

But the A330 will live on.

Comments

The Kamioka mines: from silver to supernovas

Part of the Kamioka zinc mining and smelter complex Just after posting about the Kamioka Railway another photo from that 2006 set piqued my interest. Up there in the mountains the landscape looked blasted not just by winter but by something more. It was the kind of lonely place where you would not expect to find major industry, so this sight was quite surprising. Even more surprising is the history associated with this photo. According to some sources mining and refining of ores in Kamioka dates back to 710 AD and only closed in 2001. Undoubtedly the mine was a major reason for the existence of the Kamioka Railway. Refining of zinc still continues to this day under the parent Mitsui Kenzoku zaibatsu . Gold, silver, copper, zinc and lead were all dug out of the rock here. Unfortunately, the process released cadmium into the river, which, when taken up by the rice that was grown in the river, caused the terrible itai-itai disease - meaning "It hurts! It hurts". Cadm...

Asagaya and heading home

How can I be happy? I am about to return to a country where the toilets have at most two buttons and no seat warmers. But the tickets are booked and there are no cyclones, typhoons or other disasters standing in our way. It's almost time to go back to my first home. First B wants to do some "local shopping". So we catch the Chuo Line up a few stations to Asagaya, a residential area with a number of Shotengai, covered and uncovered arcades leading away from the station and narrow alleys lined with bars. It is an interesting area for a wander around. We are mainly looking, do some shopping for toothbrushes and sweets from Seiyu, a Wal-Mart owned supermarket/minor department store. We skipped breakfast and lunch is ramen and gyoza at a small restaurant near the entrance to the Pearl Centre shotengai. With the help of a staff member, I manage to purchase tickets at a branch of Lawson to the Ghibli Museum for a friend travelling to Japan in May. There are some...

To Melbourne on the XPT sleeper

Excited by the prospect of reliving the experience of seeing my very first movie and hearing the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra perform it I bought tickets to The Empire Strikes Back in Concert in Melbourne back in February. Then I did nothing about actually getting there. Much as I love Melbourne, due to family commitments I didn't want to spend more than the Sunday away. Flights there and back made sense, but my flight down to Melbourne in late October reiterated the fact that I usually don't enjoy descending into the city. And the concert was in December, a season of summer storms. I really didn't feel like driving the whole route alone and in a hurry, so that left one choice. The train. My very first trip up to Sydney from Melbourne was aboard the luxury Southern Aurora. Or it was supposed to be luxury. I wouldn't know because I spent the whole ride up very sick with the flu lying in the top bunk, unable to stay awake for my whole of night vigil. Now only...

travelling allrite

Search This Blog