Flight Segment 2: Citilink flight GA 060

 

 Citilink flight 60 in Juanda Airport Surabaya

 

I was so surprised that even before 6 am, the sun has started to rise in Surabaya. Unlike in Singapore, where 6 am would still as dark as night time.

I went to the airport by car, and it did not took a very long time to reach the airport, thanks to the newly opened highway that could link the airport and downtown, also at the early morning of around 6 am, traffic was definitely not heavy, but I could see that the congestion was already building up to reach its peak at maybe around 7 to 8 am, where most of the working people would head for their respective offices.

I managed to reach Juanda International Airport at 6.25 am, which means I have to rush because the flight is scheduled to depart at 6.50 am. In the domestic flight terminal, there was a large crowd of passengers bound for different flights to destinations across Indonesia. My flight's check-in queue is still quite long actually. Check-in process in the Citilink airlines counter was just fine, the process was quick and efficient.

I rushed to the assigned boarding gate in a worry that the time was quite tight, and again.. I saw a long queue there for the second security screening. Boarding process was quite long, because of the full load of the flight today. We were escorted to the bus that will take us to the airplane, which was parked at a parking stand away from the gate.

Morning flight gave me the opportunity to see some of the international visitors of Juanda Airport, such as China Airlines Airbus A330 or the Cathay Pacific Boeing 777. I sat on the emergency exit row this time, providing me with more legroom on this short 1 hour 10 minutes hop between Surabaya and Balikpapan.

Friendly legroom in Emergency Exit row 

Armrest tray tables is used in emergency exit rows

 

The Citilink Boeing 737-400 after arriving Sepinggan Airport

 Sepinggan Airport in Balikpapan 

During the flight I chose to just sleep and let the time pass by. By the time I woke up, the airplane was already on approach to Balikpapan's Sepinggan Airport, and landed in the airport's only runway around 10-15 minutes later.