Finishing up this trip report series on Qantas with a relatively quick hop up to New Guinea from Brisbane. Qantas currently serves Papua New Guinea’s largest airport from Brisbane and Sydney, the latter from the end of March of this year. The aircraft used on the route from the former is the airline’s 737-800, although in the next few years the type is scheduled to give way to the A321XLR in the coming years. This is the first flight I’ve done to New Guinea and it turned out to be pretty good!
Server: Solo
Airline: Qantas
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800
Origin: Brisbane Airport, Brisbane, Australia (BNE)
Destination: Port Moresby International Airport, Saraga, Papua New Guinea (POM)
Flight Number: QF57
Route: YBBN-AYPY
Seat: 3A (Business)
Time En Route: 3 Hours 4 Minutes
Ready to board at Brisbane’s International Terminal. Once again, we’re flying on a Qantas 737-800. Even though it’s been a while since the A321XLR order was announced, we’re still getting used to the knowledge that the 737 NGs are getting old and are starting to be phased out from the world’s airline fleets. Feels like just yesterday that the 737 Classics were being retired.
Pushing back from Gate 74B. We’re flying in Qantas’s excellent domestic/short-haul international business class, in the last row of the 6-seat cabin. The seats are upholstered with brown leather, giving the feeling of a sturdy recliner.
While we get situated in our seat that feels like it should be in someone’s living room rather than on an aircraft, we’re in the middle of a long taxi across the airport. Like Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport, Brisbane has a road under a couple of its taxiways, in this case Dayandra Road, which leads to the Royal Flying Doctor Service ramp. We’re actually taxiing behind one of their King Air 200Cs for takeoff right now.
Taking off from Brisbane’s Runway 19R as a company A330-300 approaches to land on 19L. We’re looking at just over 3 hours en route to Port Moresby, so we have plenty of time to enjoy our spot in business class on this 737.
Our climbout from Brissie takes us by Woorim Beach and the eponymous town of Woorim. Even though it’s the middle of the fall, it’s still great beach weather in Queensland. Gotta visit it some time in the future!
Cruising over the Coral Sea at 34,000 feet. We got served a pretty decent early lunch, centered on the offerings of chef Neil Perry. So far, Qantas’s short-haul international business class is extremely enjoyable.
Approaching the clouds in a bumpy descent into Port Moresby. While our crew today has provided an excellent experience overall, one thing they can’t do anything about is the weather, and given that we’re in cyclone season, tropical storms and the rough air they produce are a constant feature here around Queensland, the Northern Territory, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia.
The turbulence stuck and unpredictable gusts stuck with us right up to landing, resulting in a bumpy touchdown at Port Moresby International. At least it was on centerline and it wasn’t as rough as it could have been.
Taxiing to the International Terminal with the landing lights of what turned out to be a PNG Air ATR 72-600 on final. PNG Air flies its fleet of ATR 72-600s and Dash 8-100s to a wide variety of destinations in Papua New Guinea, but the airline’s turboprops are also a somewhat common sight at Cairns.
Deplaned at the International Terminal, the only one at Port Moresby with jetbridges, although admittedly, it’s hard to fit them to regional turboprops. We had a great time flying to Port Moresby with Qantas, with the flight being everything we wanted with the exception of the weather. Now, it’s time to bid the Flying Kangaroo farewell and head to the New Guinea highlands of Australian Crawl’s “Errol”.