The flights were bought just slightly more than a month before departure and I was surprised that Tiger was only offering the fares for S$96 return all-in, really a steal for departure on a friday morning and return on sunday afternoon. With such great fares, it was of course a no-brainer to book it! The flights might be the normal Tiger LCC experience, but these 2 flights would be more significant for me as they could well-probable be my last departure and arrival into Changi's Budget Terminal. As such, I was prepared to take lots of photos before its closure on Sept 24.
25 May 2012
Tiger Airways
TR2426
Singapore(SIN) - Penang(PEN)
A320
9V-TAO turbotiger
Budget Class
Checked it an hour before departure and it was fuss-free with only hand-carry luggage. I was surprised to be offered the emex row without me even requesting for it! Seemed that Tiger allocates seats in the emex rows even when the flights are not full. On my last 3 departures on Tiger out of SIN, I was allocated the emex row on all times!!
Through immigration and security in a jiffy and lets take a look at the departure hall of Budget Terminal.
Lounging area.
Shopping in budget terminal.
Quite a busy morning.
Last ever departure through here?
Sterile walkway to the gates. My flight would be departing from Gate 1.
Tiger Airways paper boarding receipt.
Waiting for a buyer?
Lots of SQ birdies at T2!
Another SQ bird at the remote stand.
CX taking off.
Turbotiger would be flying me to Penang!
Boarding was started very early at around 0830hrs for a 0905hrs departure. No photos on the tarmac due to a security personnel staring sternly at all passengers. Some other pax were stopped from taking photos too! However I grabbed a photo just before entering the plane.
Was greeted by the crew and directed to my seat at row 13. The best emex row as the seats have extra legroom and do recline.
Snapped a photo from the window before my 2 seat mates arrived. I was seated at the aisle and so not many window-view photos from now. Another Tiger getting ready to depart for Taipei.
Great legroom!
Seat pocket contents. No used tissues/wrappers/cookie crumbs this time round. Guess the plane was freshly cleaned.
The flight was almost full! Flight time was announced to be 1hr. All passengers had boarded by 0855hrs and doors were closed. However, the captain came on, thanking all passengers for the speedy boarding, but however due to morning congestion at Changi with us scheduled at number 12 for departure, ATC had advised pushback only at 0912hrs. Whats new…. And so we waited for almost 20min for pushback, then spent almost another 20min taxiing to Rwy20C, finally taking off at 0935hrs, 30min behind schedule. On the way to the runway, I also spotted 5 Tiger planes parked at remote stands. Not very efficient utilization of planes by Tiger, or Tiger currently has too many aircrafts?
Shortly after takeoff, the usual Tiger buy-on-board service started, with not many takers.
This was followed by a duty-free sales service.
Generally, service by the crew on this flight is rather fine, but being such a short flight, it was rather hard to fault the service too. Also, no regrets with not having a window seat as we were in the clouds almost the entire flight, with some slight turbulence.
Landed at Penang Rwy04 right on schedule at 1035hrs (Tiger padded their Penang flights at 1hr30min when the flying time is normally about 55min-1hr).
Disembarking turbotiger.
Preparing for the return trip. Lots of cargo on the flight!
Penang International Airport terminal building. The interior is currently undergoing a major renovation.
