by penguin1 » Fri Jul 03, 2009 1:37 am
On 14 March 2006 I was flying "freedomair.com" (ANZsub) from NZDN to YMML. Top service, Top flight - only one problem. The weather was closing in with a fierce rainstorm and severe turbulences. The crew of the Airbus 320 had the choice of getting out of there as fast as possible or having to cancel the flight for the day. So all waiting passengers were rounded up into the departure lounge. As an Aussie my dormant recognition of urgent messages in Kiwi was not very well tuned, so I had to be called from the Cafe by name and rushed through the formalities on bord. We left 30 minutes before schedule to endure a tough Rodeo ride of all 3 axis in this European Nintendo-Jet. As a firm believer in "If it ain't Boeing, I'm not going..." I was stunned to see us finally reaching smooth airspace, which endured all across the Tasman to sunny Melbourne.
As a conclusion from this flight I gather that LCCs rather follow the cut Dollar, Pound, Peso, Euro,... than a strict adherance to service. It was not the pax from NZDN to YMML that were a risk factor to the airline, delay or cancellation would have affected pax from YMML to somewhere in NZ. Airlines are not Buslines. If the weather is abyssmal on the ground, one can pull over and sit out the storm, before continuing. There are no handbrakes for jets in midair trouble, let alone a suitable landing strip of safe length and surface. AF447 recently has shown again, that we are not the Supreme Masters of the Sky.
Finally,let's not forget that Jetstar as a Qantas-sub will create headlines for the mother-company's extreme safety reputation, whenever they'll hit the floor with fatalities.