Summer started way back in the first week of June and time had flown by even though nothing special had happened. The last few days of July were approaching and we were off on our first ‘real’ vacation (the other being my trip to my hometown in India which is anything but a holiday    ) to the beaches in Penang, Malaysia.   

Booking:
The booking for this flight was done on the very easy to use singaporeair.com in mid June. For those of you who don’t know, Silk Air is a Singapore Airlines subsidiary and flies to it’s regional leisure destinations using A319’s and A320’s. For the first time in a long time, I let my mom book the tickets and of the 3 daily flights (2x A319/A320, 1x 772), she picked the Silk Air operated flight, obviously not knowing the different aircraft types    I was unhappy because I was looking to hopefully add another SQ772 rego to my log before they left the fleet (I was lucky to have flown 9V-SQA and SQB) to and from Bali just a few months ago before they left the fleet in June this year). Anyway, I’ll stop my ranting and get on with the report.  

To the Airport:
I had checked in online a couple of days ago and the flight seemed to be completely packed with the odd middle seat available here and there. One thing I did not like about the Silk Air system was that it didn’t allow you to go back and change your seats   . Soon, the departure day came about and the convenient takeoff time allowed a non rushed experience. Waking up at 11 AM, I was soon ready and finished putting away a few things in my carryon bag and before I knew it, it was 1 15 PM and off we went. Traffic was light on this Friday afternoon and the expressway got us to the airport in less than 20 minutes.


On the expressway


The tall Changi Tower with dark clouds watching over it.

Check in:
The cab dropped us off at the curbside of T2 and we headed to the Silk Air desks located in aisle 8. There were about 8 open counters at this non-peak hour - 4 for Y, 2 for J, and 2 for internet checked in pax. There was a short q for Y, but no one at J. We headed over to the J desks (Frequent flyer benefits ) and the bored looking lady checked us in in a couple of minutes. There was nothing to do air side so we went passed customs to the airside.


the curbside


MI check in desks

Airside:
Having been bored of the windowless silverkris lounge, I decided to stay with my sister and do a little spotting while my parents went to the lounge. Younger siblings can be a pain and with the blink of an eye, my sister was off running to the candy store in the middle of the terminal. I bought her some candy and we went to find something to nibble on. I went to the pizza place (which has excellent pizza’s) but they didn’t have any more margherita’s  .


Airside

I found a little cafe closer to the big windows and bought a tomato and mozzarella sandwich after which I checked my emails and Facebook on the free internet-enabled computers next to the cafe.


Delicious 

I also managed to get some more information on my aircraft 9V-SLI and discovered it was the delivered on 2006.  


9V-SLI taking me to Penang


Close up

There were a mixture of landings and take-offs from runway 20C which were clearly visible but being a rather amateur photographer, I managed to cut off a bit of the plane from each shot.   I did however, take a few pictures of the parked/taxiing aircraft.


MI Pushback


Great Wall Airlines






Great Wall Airlines & MI


9V-SRH


9V-SQJ

Date: July 24th 2009
Airline: Silk Air
Aircraft: Airbus A320-233
Flight #: MI 356
Registration: 9V-SLI
From: Singapore Changi Airport, Singapore
To: Penang International Airport, Malaysia
STD: 3:10 PM // ATD: 3:22 PM
STA: 4:35 PM // ATA: 4:26 PM
Loads: Y=98% // J=25%

Boarding:
Boarding today was at gate E1 and I could see my aircraft clearly which made me look up its history, as stated earlier. Time flew by and checking the FIDS, the gate for my flight showed ‘open’. Just a word of advice: Whenever the FIDS shows ‘final call’, it really means boarding hasn’t even started. So don’t bother running a sweat cos you’ll end up pissed, as I discovered with an American man on my flight to BLR last month.


FIDS

Anyway, we met the parents at the gate and went through security into the gate area. After filling up the departure card, boarding was called at 2:40 PM for our 3:10 PM departure. Boarding was civilized and I made my way down the jetway where some kind of fire alarm went off. It was rather weird but eventually stopped after a minute.?:- l I was welcomed and I made my way down the A320 past the 3 rows of J class and into ‘cattle’ class.  


JCL

On Board:
I took my seat in 16A and found the legroom to be rather good for a narrow body, especially considering I'm 6 feet tall.    The seat itself was adequate and perfectly fine for this short hop.


The view from 16A.


Legroom.

Boarding was soon complete and as I saw online, the flight was packed.


Packed cabin

Doors closed at 3:05 and we soon pushed back at 3:09 as Captain David welcomed us aboard. We were to expect a relatively smooth flight once we left Singapore. The engines spooled up, and the amazing ‘buzzing’ feel came about the cabin.   


MI

The safety video began playing on the overhead screens and a few minuted later, we began our relatively short taxi to runway 20C where we were behind a Tiger Airways A320 and a Sri Lankan Airlines A340.


Taxi

The departure time was well suited in terms of delays because the European heavies usually begin coming in at 3:40 right up to 6 30 PM. One thing I noticed was that 2 FA’s were seated in the middle seat in the 2 exit rows, for takeoff and landing. Its the first time I noticed this on a narrowbody. Is this normal? Taxi into position and hold followed by a rather non powerful take-off (its probably due to the fact that most of my flights have been on T7’s which obviously have a much more powerful take-off) at 3:22 PM. We gently lifted off mid runway and began our climb to 34000 ft.


Climbing

Inflight:
The seatbelt sign went of at 10000 ft. and the crew sprung into action. As we climbed, we encountered some turbulence which soon weared off. About 10 minutes later, the crew began ‘meal’ service. At this time, the first officer came on and gave us what sounded like detailed information of our routing and weather but it sounded like gibberish    There must’ve been a problem with the PA because almost all the announcements were unclear.


Cruising

Anyway, the crew began the ‘meal’ service. It consisted of a chicken pasty and a choice of OJ or tea. It was probably the most pathetic and tasteless meal I’ve ever had on a flight catered from Singapore but oh well, at least they give you something, for free   


Terrible 'meal'

The crew on this flight were nothing special. In fact, I think they were a little more stuck up and not as open compared SQ crew but they did they’re job, and met every request while putting on a smile    I started watching the movie ‘dodgeball’ which I had bought on the iTunes store earlier.


My IFE.


The 'other' IFE.

Just about 30 minutes into the movie, the first officer came on the PA to announce we had begun our descend into Penang International Airport and we were expected to be at the gate 5 minutes ahead of schedule. I looked at the time and it was just 3:56 PM - a much shorter flight than I had imagined    We descended pretty rapidly and I could see the outskirts of Penang along the blue colored ocean.


Approach

We even crossed Penang city and as the flaps began to come down, we made a few turns to line up with runway 22 and crossed numerous buildings, residential areas and expressway and bridges. The A320 came up onto the threshold of the airport and made not so soft landing, bounced, and then the revers thrusters deployed at 4:26 PM. It took exceptionally long to feel the plane slow down but I guess it was so the pilots could get off on a taxiway closer to the terminal. We made a quick taxi up to gate 7 and had blocks on at 4:31 PM, 4 minutes ahead of scheduled arrival, giving us a block to block time of 1 hour 22 minutes.


At the gate

Unfortunately, I accidently deleted the video of the landing so I apologize for that    I watched an Air Asia A320 land as we waited for the doors to open. It took a while to disembark but I managed to get a few pictures of the seats.


Y Seats

The crew said goodbye and that brought me to the end of a rather quick flight.


9V-SLI at Gate 7 in PEN

Surprisingly, customs wasn’t bad despite the fact that the AirAsia flight just landed as well. I was through quickly and my vacation had begun!

Conclusion:
Silk Air does what it was created for : get holidaying pax to their destination quickly and effectively. The flight was on time, comfortable, and the crew didn’t show any signs of being rude. The catering was a disappointment but to be honest, I wasn’t expecting anything due to the departure time and flight duration, so it was a nice surprise. Although its nowhere as fancy as its daddy SQ, it gets the job done.

Thanks for reading my first ‘proper’ trip report. Any praise/criticism is welcome. Return trip will be posted by this weekend. Have a good day.

Cheers,
Manek