I had never flown on this particular type of aircraft before so I was interested to see what it was like.  This joint venture French/Italian manufactured turboprop aircraft has just 68 seats with it’s passenger door located at the rear.

Airline and Flight #

Virgin Australia| VA 670

Aircraft

Aeritalia ATR

Departing Airport and Terminal

Kingsford Smith Airport, Sydney | Terminal 2

Scheduled Departure Date and Time

Monday 6th August | 7:05pm

Flying Time

1hr

Luggage Allowance

Checked Luggage

For passengers with no Velocity membership or just the basic Velocity membership (Red), one piece of luggage weighing no more than 23kg is allowed free of charge.  Measurements must not exceed a total linear dimension (length + width + height) of 140cm (55 inches).

Carry on

All passengers flying domestic are permitted 7kg of carry-on luggage plus one personal item.  Carry-on luggage can be two pieces (48cm long x 34cm wide x 23cm deep) with total linear dimensions of 105cm.  Or it can be one small bag plus a suit pack or garment bag.  Personal items include those items such as slim laptops, handbags, umbrellas, overcoats etc.

Fun Facts

• Virgin Australia was awarded Best Airline and Best Airline Staff in Australia/Pacific at the 2017 Skytrax World Airline Awards and 13th in the World Top Airline list.
• VA are the only airline to offer WiFi for all Trans-Tasman flights
• The airline is based in Bowen Hills, Brisbane Queensland
• Virgin Australia was known as Virgin Blue and started off as a low-cost carrier
• VA is not part of either of the three airline alliances but has it’s own frequent flyer program called Velocity.

Website

Virgin Australia’s website can be found at VirginAustralia.com.  I actually didn’t book flights through the website as I found cheaper ones on Skyscanner.  This led me to Bestjet.com.

Check-in 

Check-in for domestic flights can be done in either of the two following ways:

Online

• via desktop, tablet or mobile devices using VA’s online check-in portal
• check-in opens 48 hours prior to scheduled flight departure and closes 45 minutes prior to departure

At the Airport

• by using the self check-in kiosk (located at airports in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Gold Coast).  Just enter your 6 letter boarding reference and your flight details will be brought up.  You can select your seats if you haven’t done so already as well as print off your boarding passes and bag tags.
• If you are connecting to an international flight, travelling in a large group or requiring additional assistance then check-in should be completed no less than 60 minutes prior to your scheduled departure time.

Seating

There are just 68 seats on this aircraft in a 2-2 configuration with 64 Economy seats and 4 Economy X or Premium Economy seats.  There were no business class seats but the flight was only an hour.  We were seated in row 7 of 17.

Seat pitch in Economy was 76-79 cm (30-31 inches) whilst seat width was 43 cm (17 inches).  Leg room actually felt OK for the short flight but the seats weren’t the most comfortable with just a thin layer of padding covering the rather firm leather seats.  There were no footrests or adjustable headrests on this plane and no pillows, headphones or blankets although these could be purchased on longer flights.  The armrests in between each of the two seats lifted up and whilst legroom was good if you were sitting in the aisle seat, it was not the case if you had a window seat, due to the seat in front.

Cabin Comfort

As the plane was quite noisy inside the cabin, it made it hard to hear the inflight announcements.  Squeezing into the tight space inside the restroom could also be a challenge for some people.  Leg room was good in the aisle seat but not so good if you had a window seat.  As the seats were not well padded, it made them quite uncomfortable.

In-flight Entertainment

Electronic Devices

Mobile phones can be used when embarking and disembarking using the aerobridge and whilst on the plane until the last door is closed.  Then mobile devices must be switched to flight mode.

Power

There were no power outlets on board this flight.

Reading Material

Voyeur is Virgin Australia’s magazine which is found in the seat pocket in front and can also be downloaded and viewed from your device.  There is also a copy of the menu and the safety card.

WiFi

You can access WiFi through your device after ensuring it has been put into flight mode.  Connect to the VirginAustralia network and launch your browser.  If it doesn’t connect automatically, type in airborne.gogoinflight.com.  You can then choose the package that suits you.

Entertainment System

Complimentary in-flight entertainment is provided on board the flight for you to download on your own device prior to the flight.  It allows access to hundreds of hours of movies, TV shows and music.  There are no screens on board the flight.

Catering

Menus

I thought the menus on board our Virgin flight were attractive and contained a range of mostly healthy items to eat and drink in addition to alcoholic beverages and items like blankets and ear buds.  All items in the menu you had to pay for although there was a light complimentary snack and drink handed out too.

Food/Drinks

As soon as the seat-belt signs were turned off, cabin crew prepared the trolley for orange juice, water, tea and coffee along with the snack to be handed out.  I found the cheese and crackers a decent enough snack for the short one hour flight.

Restrooms

There was one restroom on board located at the very rear of the aircraft on the left hand side facing the front.  It was tiny and a bit hard to access at the start of the flight as cabin crew were preparing the trolley for drinks and snacks.

Service

The service was friendly and the snack adequate for the short one hour flight.

Pros

• The price was more affordable than the other full service carrier
• A complimentary snack and non-alcoholic drinks were served
• In-flight entertainment was available to watch on your own device
• Leg room was quite decent
• Watching the propellers out the window is quite fun, especially for kids

Cons

• Being a smaller plane meant it took longer to reach our destination
• There were no screens for watching movies or TV
• Seats were a bit too firm with little padding making them rather uncomfortable
• The restroom was very small
• The noise inside the cabin was quite loud

Conclusion

It was interesting to see what this type of smaller aircraft would be like.  I think I prefer the larger planes however which get you to your destination faster and don’t feel so cramped.  In saying that though, the staff on board this flight were friendly and we received a more substantial snack than on our previous flight which was longer.  For children, the view and sound of the propellers outside the window could be of interest.  For better leg room though, choose an aisle seat.