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Jetstar Bombardier Dash 8-Q300
Booking the Flight & Cost of the Flight
This flight was booked through the Jetstar website. An economy class flight between Wellington and Nelson on Jetstar started from NZ$48, but I paid NZ$52 for this flight. The Jetstar website worked well, and I very quickly had my e-ticket. Jetstar has both a website and application for booking flights, but I only have experience with booking via the website.
Operating Aircraft
The operating aircraft used was Bombardier Dash 8-Q300 VH-TQM. The aircraft was 14 years old at the time of this flight and has operated almost exclusively for Qantaslink, and was operating for Jetstar on behalf of Qantaslink at the time of flight. This was the 604th Bombardier Dash 8 to be built and was delivered to Qantaslink (on behalf of Eastern Australia Airlines) way back in August 2004. It went to Jetstar in November 2015, and returned to Qantaslink / Eastern Australia Airlines service in July 2021 where it currently is today. The aircraft is powered by two Pratt & Whitney PW123E turboprop engines. The aircraft was very clean and well maintained when I flew on it.
Cabin
The cabin onboard this Bombardier Dash 8-Q300 aircraft was nice and spacious, complete with vibrant Jetstar colours in the cabin. It was pretty clean and well maintained. I could not see any spare seats.
Seating
For this flight I paid for seat 2D, which is a window seat in the second row. The seating layout on the Jetstar Bombardier Dash 8-Q300 was the same as on a Qantaslink Bombardier Dash 8-Q300. It is made up of 50 leather seats laid out in an all-economy class 2-2 configuration. Row 1 has two rear-facing seats, seats 1E and 1F. Each seat has a seat pitch of between 31 and 32 inches, as well as a width of 17 inches. I found the seat to be a little tight but still quite comfortable, and the legroom was in abundance.
Inflight Customer Service
A single Jetstar flight attendant was onboard the flight. We lucked out on inflight service due to inclement weather inflight and having the seatbelt sign remain on for the entire flight, but she was friendly and conversed with the passengers sitting in front of her, which was good to see still.
Inflight Entertainment
Jetstar provided the usual airline seat pocket contents on the Bombardier Dash 8-Q300; consisting of the aircraft's safety card and inflight magazine. The airline does not provide any seatback or overhead TVs, Wi-Fi or streaming services. The magazine was pretty good, and the safety card was eye catching. Having no electronic inflight entertainment should not be too big of an issue on regional aircraft such as this one, and I was more interested on the view outside anyway.
Photos
The operating aircraft taxiing to the wet parking bay 79 at Wellington Airport after flight JQ391 from Wellington
Cabin
Economy class seats
Legroom
Seat 2D
Taxiing to the runway
Takeoff from runway 23
Cabin
Inflight at 9,900 feet
Descending into Nelson Airport
On final approach for runway 02
Landing on runway 02
Taxiing to the parking bay
Docked on bay 2
View whilst disembarking
Flight JQ374 to Auckland is in store for VH-TQM
Final Verdict
This was a good flight onboard the Jetstar Bombardier Dash 8-Q300. Albeit a very short-lived concept of low-cost regional travel, it was great to experience on a very short flight. Personally it felt strange to fly an Australian airline on a domestic flight in another country, but I still enjoyed this one. The aircraft was clean and comfortable and the crew was good. This flight took place in the latter part of 2018, Jetstar terminated its regional New Zealand operations in late 2019 due to poor market conditions and ongoing losses.
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