Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta

I took a bluebird taxi from the Hyatt to the airport, which took more than two hours. Finally we reached the airport. At the entrance to the terminal, my luggage was x-rayed, but here was no need to put anything out of the hand luggage.

The Lufthansa counters were already open. The dedicated Star Gold / First Class Counter was busy, therefore I used one of the two Business Class Counters, where nobody queued. My luggage was checked in to Frankfurt and I had to pay the departure tax of 150000 IDR. A lounge invitation was given for the use of the lounge and soon I was on my way to the immigration and passport control. Although nearly all counters were staffed, the lines were quite long and it took 20 minutes before I reached the head of the queue. Never mind, I had enough time for my flight. My passport was stamped and I was ready to pass immigration. While I waited I noticed staff of Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines calling names for passengers on flights which were ready to go and two passengers were escorted through immigration by Cathay staff.


After a quick visit at the Billabong outlet, I proceeded to the “Premier Lounge”, where I took a seat and got something to drink and a few bites to eat. I decided against putting some work in my trip reports as well as in some business stuff and instead read in my book. The food selection was okay but compared with the usual better selection in Asian airports more basic. Spring rolls, a soup, packed cheese and rolls and different types of beverage were available. The lounge was not very full as I came in but became more and more crowded in the next hour. It seems, that LH uses this lounge for its Business Class Customers while First Class Passengers and Senators were invited to use the Pura Indah Lounge as I discovered a week later. But now it was only Business Class Lounge for me though I think I would have been entitled to the other lounge as well; I think the agent at the Business Class either mixed it up with the booking class ignoring the status or did not have other lounge invitations. Anyway, it was okay.

Boarding time approached and a few minutes prior to check in I headed towards the gate, since the hand luggage had to be checked at a checkpoint before one reaches the gate. I had to wait a few minutes, as the crew of the Turkish Airlines flight arrived, who had priority over regular travelers at the checkpoint. The line became quickly longer as the boarding announcement in the lounge must have been made, because in the line behind me I discovered a few people with LH issued boarding passes, who I had noticed already in the lounge. At the gate, the departure card was taken and my boarding pass scanned and I was allowed to enter the boarding area.

Boarding had not yet started, so I took a seat and waited for boarding time to come. The announced boarding time had already passed at this time and so the wait was not long. A line had already formed at the entrance by the later arriving passengers from the lounge, which I did not join. As usually I was trying to get a look at the plane and spot the registration of the plane, which was possible at the front wheel. There are two letter painted at the landing gear assembly cover, which are the last letter of the registration of LH planes. The “VB” was the registration of D-ABVB, the second oldest Boeing 747-400 of Lufthansa. This plane was about to be taken out of service in a couple of more months after Lufthansa got their A380ies, which would replace the older Boeing 747-400 in the LH fleet. The “Bonn” was withdrawn from service on February 14, 2012 and was scrapped in March. It joined Lufthansa’s fleet back on September 30, 1989 and made its first flight on June 27, 1988.

Boarding started after a very short wait with First and Business Class as well as HON Circle Members, Senators and Star Gold passengers and was enforced by the agent at the door to the jetbridge as quite a number of people jumped up from their seats in the moment the agent took the microphone and began the usual boarding announcement.

05 May 2011
CGK– SIN
[Jakarta Soekarno Hatta– Singapore Changi]
LH 779 (Lufthansa); Boeing 747-400 (D- ABVB / ‘Bonn’)
Gate D 05
19:00 – 21:45 [effective 19:01 – 21:37]
Business Class
Seat 1 K

I used the Business Class jetbridge and was friendly greeted as I entered the plane. My boarding pass was checked and I was shown directions to my seat. I walked to my seat in the first row and stowed by carry on in the overhead bin.

My seat neighbor had already arrived, a young lady, who also flew onwards to Frankfurt as she told me later on during our flight to Singapore. Pre departure drinks were offered, a choice of Singapore Slings cocktails (crew told us, it were Mai Tais), champagne, orange juice and water.

I took the champagne and waited for the remaining passengers to arrive.

There were neither blankets nor amenity kits available on this flight to Singapore. Also no menus were distributed for this flight.

We pushed back at 19:01 and taxied for our runway, where we had to queue, but the line was short and we were number three for takeoff, but it took some time. Finally at 19:22 the captain powered the four General Electric CF6 engines and we climbed into the already dark sky above Jakarta. The GE CF6-80 engines are used quite often and in different types for different planes and also for the 767 and different Airbus planes. The CF6-80CB2 turbofan engine has a thrust rating of 52,500 to 63,500 lb each, depending on the type used and each has a weight of more than 4 tons. It is one of the most used engine type in commercial aviation and currently used at more than 2400 planes. While the powerful engines brought the plane to cruising altitude, I read in the board magazine and watched the landscape of Indonesia disappearing in the smog and dust above Jakarta.

After close to 15 minutes in flight, the fasten seat belt signs were turned off and the crew started to prepare the service with a first beverage round soon followed by the meal service, A hot meal was offered on this short 1:10 h flight to Singapore. It was done from the cart and together with the hot menu came a small bottle of water, but additional beverages were offered as well. All wines and champagne were available. I skipped the meal service, as I do not want to each that much on this flight but had a gin tonic. Since we do not have the menu yet, we did not know in advance about the wine selection and what exactly we get.

After twenty minutes another beverage round was done and soon later the trays were collected. The crew was friendly and attentive; also they were quite busy, doing a full service in this short flight which is not the standard for Lufthansa. The load was not that low, there were a few seats empty, but I would rate the load with close to 90%.

Immigration forms for Singapore were offered to passengers leaving us in Singapore.

We already had begun our final approach as the captain, who had welcomed us on board while we were at the gate in Jakarta, gave us an update of the weather situation in Singapore. Later the crew collected the last remaining glasses and prepared the cabin for the arrival in Singapore. We were informed that we had to leave the plane, since there was a crew change and the plane had to be cleaned.

We touched down at 21:34 and taxied for our gate E 04 next to the Munich bound A 340. Doors were open at 21:39.

I left the plane and walked to the Silver Kris Lounge in the main concourse of Singapore Changi Terminal 2.

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