Views of Te Urewera. Photo / Winston Aldworth
Winston Aldworth flies aboard Jetstar's JQ352 from Napier to Auckland.
The plane: The Jetstar Bombardier Q300s have been working this route for more than a year now.
Price: One-way prices start from $49. There's no doubt that the arrival of the little orange star in the skies above Hawke's Bay has brought down the cost of flying into and out of Napier. Good for competition, good for local businesses, good for tourists.
Seat: 2D. There's a 2-2 configuration throughout this little turboprop.
On time? We're under way at the scheduled 10.05am and land in Mangere ahead of the planned 11.10am.
How full:
To the brim.
Fellow passengers:
It's a Monday morning, so the cabin is mostly full of people wearing expressions of business-like intent. As we're flying northward from a province that's wealthy in both farms and wineries, there are plenty of R.M. Williams boots poking out from the bottom of expensive jeans.
"Up to Auckland for the day?" I ask the rugged-looking bloke in the seat next to me.
"Yup," he says, leaning back, closing his eyes, and shutting down the conversation like it was an errant shed door in an annoying nor-easter.
Food and drink: I picked up a nice sandwich in the airport terminal.
Luggage: I'm rolling with carry-on kit only. You can pop a bag in the hold for an additional $10-$35, depending on weight (15kg to 40kg).
Entertainment: I'm not a huge fan of window seats (I don't like feeling hemmed in and I don't like seeing the wings), but on this flight I bagged one on the right hand side of the plane in the hope that I'd get a nice morning view of Te Urewera. And I sure did — on a clear day, you'll get the whole of the East Cape. Passengers sitting over on the left of the cabin can see Taupo and the central mountains.
If the view doesn't do it for you, you're stuck with a book or a one-word conversation with your seat mate.
Airport experience: The terminal at Hawke's Bay Airport is small and heaving. This is evidently the kind of region that entire families will come to the airport to pick you up when you land. The busy little coffee stand makes a good flat white.
Dotted around the terminal are feature floors in which bottles from the region's many fabulous wineries are displayed beneath reinforced glass. A nice effect.
When I arrive there's an Air New Zealand plane parked immediately out the front of the terminal. It soon clears off, leaving the prime parking space free. But when my Jetstar plane lands, it parks several plane-lengths further down the concourse. "That's weird," I mutter to myself. Why wouldn't the Jetstar one be parked in front of the terminal when the space is empty?
A quick chat with a nearby orange-shirted Jetstar staffer reveals all. "Nope," she says with a grin. "The airport has always made us park down there. Even when the spot out front is free."
The verdict: A fine service, a great price, and a valuable asset to the region. Everywhere these Jetstar planes go, consumers win — whatever airline they're flying on. So it seems a shame the airport wouldn't let these little Q300s have their moment parked in front of the terminal.
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