A380

Walking down the airbridge, I could immediately tell that there had been an equipment change this evening and that the old boring 777-200ER had been replaced by a shiny white Whalejet. Though I had an A380 segment on the return in the original booking, this was still a most appreciated surprise for an aviation nerd like myself. Maybe I should have suspected something already when I was handed my boarding pass with the magic words “Main deck” stamped on it. Despite almost seven years in service with a number of different airlines, this will be my premier flight on the A380-800.

Seeing the signs leading passengers away to their Suites, First and Business class cabins respectively, I inevitably felt a sting of envy. But as this is Singapore Airlines after all, I must say that I feel reasonably comfortable sitting here at 37A, looking forward to my soon-to-be-served G&T. Also, as one would expect, the cabin feels really spacious despite the ten-abreast economy configuration.

The flight time down to Sydney is 7.10 hours with some light to moderate turbulence expected en route. The take-off alone was a big treat, extremely gentle yet massive as the 575 000 kg heavy aircraft rushed down the runway. And being able to use the inflight internet to post this as we cross the equator is also pretty cool. However, as I have finished most of my preparations for the conference, I will try to sleep a bit now. Maybe I will have time for another blog update once I get down to Australia.

Boarding pass

More or less on the day six years ago, I was on the same lunchtime triple-seven departure to Singapore. Like now, I had an onward ticket to Australia. Unlike then however, I am not going to spend three months of melancholia writing away in small cafés or running along St Kilda Beach. This time around, I will head straight to Sydney for a week of intensive conferencing and editing. Nonetheless, printing that boarding pass at Stockholm Arlanda had a certain magic to it. This is really a trip to the other side of the world.