Planning

Strategic Airlines claims to be Australia's newest full service airline offering flights to holiday destinations at low cost airline prices. The airline is still relatively small with a fleet of a single Airbus A330-200 VH-SSA which until now has been operating Australian Defence Force charters to the Middle East. This aircraft will be re-deployed on routes from Brisbane and Melbourne to Phuket from 22 February 2010. The airline has three Airbus A320-200s VH-YQA-YQC operating routes within Australia and also to Bali. One A320 also operates flights for Solomon Airlines between Brisbane and Honiara. Strategic also has three A320s based in Europe which will probably return to Australia as the airline expands. Strategic recently began flights from Brisbane to Bali via Townsville which gave me an opportunity to sample their product on a flight between Townsville and Brisbane.

Booking the flights was very simple and was made online through the airline's website www.flystrategic.com. The fare only cost me $89 AUD which was half the price on the same route with Virgin Blue or Qantas.

Flight Information
Aircraft: A320-212
Registration: VH-YQC
Flight No: VC535
Route: Townsville (TSV) - Brisbane Intl (BNE)
Seat: 14A
STD / ATD: 18:00 / 18:05
STA / ATA: 19:55 / 20:01
Aircraft History: Test Rego F-WWBJ, CS-TNE TAP Air Portugal, CS-TNE Air Luxor, CS-TNE Novair
Del Date: 03-MAR-93

Great Circle Mapper - copyright © Karl L. Swartz

Strategic route network current as of December 2010
Great Circle Mapper - copyright © Karl L. Swartz

Strategic advertisement

Townsville Airport is a joint facility with the Royal Australian Air Force allowing both civilian and military flights. Apart from Strategic Airlines, the airport also receives regular flights from Alliance Airlines, Jetstar, Qantas and Qantaslink, Skytrans, Regional Express and Virgin Blue. The terminal is fairly modern with a few eateries, bars and a newsagent. The airport has a small check-in area where all airlines are crammed in and usually only have 1-2 counters each. When I arrived at the check-in counters there was only the Qantas and Strategic desks open with no queues watsoever.

Check-in was fast and efficient and the check-in agent honoured my request for a window seat and gave me 14A. I was also told that the flight inbound from Bali was pretty full however there would be a lighter load for the onward flight to Brisbane. As this was only the second flight on this route I hardly expected the flight to be full. The agent also informed me that the flight was running on schedule.

Strategic check-in counters

My boarding pass

With check-in formalities out of the way it was time to head through security into the small departures area which consisted of two levels with access to aerobridges upstairs and hard stands from the ground floor. From upstairs you had a good view onto the apron and runway. Strategic Airlines A320 VH-YQC arrived at 16:30 right on schedule from Bali and parked at gate 1.

Qantaslink Dash-8

Ramp overview

My Gate displaying incorrect departure time. Should be 18:00

Taxiing into the stand

Boarding was announced at 17:40 and was completed by 17:50 as there was probably a total of 30 people on this sector. I was greeted by the freindly crew at the door and once again half-way down the aircraft. I nestled into 14A and was the only passenger in the enitre row. Most of the 30 passengers were seated around the exit rows 12 and 13 and a small cluster down the back also. The aircraft featured six business class seats up the front and the rest was economy. A head-count was performed by the crew and the doors were closed by 18:00. The aircraft pushed back at 18:03 and commenced engine start. It was a short taxi to the runway and we departed without delay.

Lining up

Climbing out with the RAAF base in view

Once the seatbelt sign was switched off, the crew began to hand out head sets which could be plugged into the armrest to either listen to music or listen to the small TV screens which dropped down from the roof at various intervals. Today they were screening an episode of "Modern Family". There was mild turbulence for most of the flight due to bad weather right up the Queensland coast. As a result the seatbelt sign came on numerous times and the captain explained on the PA that there was more to come. The meal service started when the turbulence died down and consisted of a snack and a beverage all of which was included in the ticket price. The flight attendent gave me a choice of a chicken or ham panini then followed by a choice of orange or apple juice and various soft drinks.

Headset

Armrest controls

IFE screens which dropped from the roof

My Chicken panini

Drink service

The cabin wasn't cramped and the legroom was certainly adequete. The seat pocket contained the usual safety card and Strategic's inflight magazine called "Stratosphere". Some images of the cabin and inflight magazine are below.

View accross the aisle

Legroom

View forward. The curtains were pulled accross to hide business class

Stormy weather outside

Overview of the Business Class seats

Overview of Economy seats

Seatpocket contents

inflight magazine featuring inflight merchandise and news

Fleet information and terminal maps

Articles and advertising for Strategic executive jets?
Maybe they will have a fleet of Gulfstreams in the future aswell?

After a flying time of 1hr and 35 mins we landed onto runway 19 a few minutes late because of ATC congestion in the area. The captain came on the PA and thanked us for flying Strategic and wished us a pleasent night. The aircraft came to a stop at the Common User terminal at Brisbane which is shared by Jetstar and Tiger airways aswell.

A view of the cabin after landing

Thanks for reading and your comments are welcome!

Simon Coates