Despite the fact that QANTAS is not a member of SkyTeam, it is possible, rather conveniently, to redeem FlyingBlue points on the Australian carrier. Availability is usually quite good too – which is nice because most of the time I don’t know what to do with my miles. It is also interesting that QANTAS will even honour the status of FlyingBlue members.

Routing

> ZRH LH Y FRA A319

> FRA AF C CDG E195

> CDG AF C SIN B77W

> SIN SQ C CNS A359

> CNS ZL Y ISA SF34

> ISA QF Y TSV DH8D

> TSV QF Y CNS DH8D

> CNS QF C DRW E190

> DRW QF C SYD B738

> SYD KE C ICN B781

> ICN KL C AMS B789

> AMS KL C FRA E175

> FRA EN Y BSL E190

I spend my last evening in Mount Isa out at Moondarra Lake watching the sun set. It’s a beautiful, balmy evening, but once the sun vanishes on the horizon, it quickly turns quite fresh. Mount Isa has been quite a surprise. To be honest, I’m not even fully sure what I was expecting, but I really enjoyed my time here. The town is small, which makes it easy to navigate. And the locals are friendly, welcoming and rather funny.

Getting to the Airport

My flight to Townsville departs from Mount Isa at 09h30, so I ask the hotel to order me a taxi out to the airport for 08h15. That should bring me to the airport by 08h30, thirty minutes before boarding is expected to start. The trip takes about fifteen minutes and costs AUD20. The Mount Isa airport terminal is a squat building that reminds me a lot of Haugesund Airport in Norway. However, if anything, this terminal is even smaller.

QANTAS Check-In

The queue for check-in is surprisingly long. It turns out that the morning is one of the busier periods at the airport, with the flight to Townsville departing at 09h30, Brisbane at 09h20 and Doomadgee at 09h15 – which should be interesting with only two available boarding gates.

Airside

In short sequence the flight from Brisbane arrives, followed by the inbound from Townsville. The Rex flight to Doomadgee is already here after it went tech yesterday evening. There isn’t really anything much to do airside, although there is a sit down bar that is definitely better than the fast food take-away joint they have in Haugesund.

QANTAS Economy Class Boarding

Boarding for my flight starts at 09h15. As I’m seated on row 1, I figure I might as well wait for everybody else to board first. Like that I can also take my time taking photos of the aircraft. The gate agent tags my suitcase and tells me to just leave it at the bottom of the aircraft’s stairs for the handlers to collect and store in the rear hold.

The Cabin & Seat

I don’t take any photos of my seat on this leg, mainly because I’m the last one to board and it would be impossible to take photos without any of the other passengers in them. The best seat on the Dash 8-400 is definitely 1B because of the excellent seat pitch. On 1A the pitch is not bad, but the curvature of the hull cuts into the leg space. Up front is only the lavatory and a storage compartment for luggage that is inaccessible from the cabin.

QANTAS Service & Crew

There are two cabin crew on this flight. One of them is an Asian young man, while the other is a caucasian woman in her late fifties, if I had to guess. Both of them are friendly, but I think the female is definitely a lot more professional than the young guy, who is a bit sloppy. Before the engines start, the crew takes us through the safety briefing for passengers seated by the exit row and inquires if we’re willing and able to assist in case of an evacuation on land or water. With that out of the way, we’re all set for our flight to Townsville. The flight time today will be ninety minutes.

QANTAS Economy Class Snack

The inflight service begins soon after we get airborne. First, the young man passes through the cabin wordlessly handing out small packets of coconut and pineapple slices from a trolley. Behind him, the female cabin crew is passing through the cabin offering drinks, and I request a sparkling water and a coffee with milk. I even try the food item, but stop mid-chew after just the one bite. It’s even sweeter than I expected and tastes pretty awful. The crew come to clear everything away, and then for the rest of the flight I just close my eyes and rest. We had a late evening yesterday in Mount Isa, with the annual rodeo festival officially kicking off with live music and outdoor bars all around the centre of town.

Arrival in Townsville

Eventually, the cockpit announces the top of descent as we approach Townsville on the Queensland coast. It’s a beautiful day for flying and we’re lucking that ATC is bringing us in for an approach from the sea, which means we’ll be flying low over Magnetic Island with its large population of syphilitic koalas on the final approach. Townsville is home to a large base of the Royal Australian Air Force. We land, and as we taxi in, I spot one of QANTAS Link’s new Airbus A 220-300s, looking sharp in the regional carrier’s livery.

QANTAS Transfer in Townsville

Townsville Airport is definitely larger than Mount Isa, but perhaps not as busy as Cairns. We disembark via a ramp, and I wait for the hand luggage to be unloaded from the rear hold. I have a flight to Cairns in a little less than two hours. There would be an earlier flight leaving in fifteen minutes. However, arrivals ejects me landslide, which means I’ll need to go through security again to access the airside gate area.

Conclusion – QANTAS Link

This was a pleasant enough flight with QANTAS Link from Mount Isa to Townsville. Especially for a domestic flight, the service was quite good. I usually tend to think of the Dash 8-400 as a small plane. However, with my previous flight into Mount Isa having been on the even smaller Saab 340, the Dash 8-400 seemed rather spacious in comparison. With a flight time of ninety minutes, this was one of the longer flights I’ve ever done on the Dash 8. My only experience on an even longer sector was with SAS from Stockholm to Zürich a few years back, and that was seriously pushing the limits of what my back and my backside are willing to endure with a flight time of two hours and thirty minutes.