Pilot recalls Jetstar’s stressful start as airline marks 20 years of flying

Free-for-all seating, hand-held printers and ‘sporty’ 717s – how Jetstar’s original crew remembers the airline’s maiden flights.

20 years ago, Captain Jeff Bray was preparing for the most stressful flight of his career at that point, co-piloting the very first Jetstar service from Newcastle to Melbourne with boss Alan Joyce and a throng of media on board.

The then first officer was understandably very keen to leave on time only to run into a technical hitch when a hand-held device used to print out final load calculations failed.

“The printer hadn’t been charged up overnight so we were sitting there trying to get this jolly piece of paper out of the printer and it didn’t work,” said Captain Bray.

“I had to go back to old school and do a whole handwritten load sheet, while the media was watching and cameras were rolling. I had sweat pouring off my brow.”

Jetstar staff with then CEO Alan Joyce in the blue shirt with John Travolta and Magda Szubanski. Picture: Supplied

Eventually the Boeing 717 took off but not before another curveball for the flight crew.

“The fireys gave us the traditional water cannon salute where they spray water over the top of the aircraft and we weren’t really expecting it,” he laughed.

“We didn’t have the windscreen wipers ready to go so it was like ‘gosh what was that?’.”

Happily the flight made good time on the way to Melbourne, landing smoothly ahead of schedule.

On Saturday, Jetstar will recreate that first service minus the stress, to mark two decades of flying — but Captain Bray will be a passenger rather than pilot.

He said it was almost impossible to believe 20 years had elapsed since the low fares carrier was launched using a fleet of 14 Boeing 717s.

Captain Jeff Bray

“A lot has changed in that time. We’ve upgraded the fleet — I love the 717 it was like a little sports car, it was fast, it was noisy and it wasn’t that comfortable,” he said.

“Now we’ve upgraded to the Airbus fleet, the A320 and A321s and the Boeing 787 and those aircraft are like limousines — they’re quiet, they’re comfortable and they’re efficient.”

Original cabin crew manager Angie Holzinger was also joining the anniversary flight to mark her own two decades with the carrier.

After four years with Qantaslink, Ms Holzinger said it was the “free seating” policy Jetstar adopted in its early years that took most getting used to, with passengers allowed to sit where they wanted.

“We’d be on the aircraft waiting and we’d see all these passengers coming towards us from the gate to the aircraft on the tarmac and let’s just say they weren’t walking at a nice steady pace, it was a full on sprint to see who got to the stairs first,” said Ms Holzinger.

“We’d get on the PA and say ‘incoming, let the show begin’ and they’d come running up the stairs. We had a little joke we’d need the rugby helmets and shoulder pads because the crowd would almost knock us out of the way to get to their seat.”

Jetstar cabin crew manager Angie Holzinger (centre) will mark the airline's 20th birthday on a flight from Newcastle to Melbourne on Saturday. Picture: Supplied

It was a definite relief for cabin crew when assigned seats and boarding passes were introduced, in the pace of something resembling “shopping dockets”, Ms Holzinger said.

“Some things have changed but what hasn’t is the special bond we have at Jetstar, it’s like a family,” she said.

“We get a lot of first time flyers who’ve never been on a plane before and they’re excited when they board, and some put their hands in the air on takeoff like it’s a show ride.”

Despite a sometimes turbulent relationship with the travelling public, Jetstar was undeniably a true aviation success story carrying more than 400 million passengers in its 20 years with over half paying less than $100.

Jetstar CEO Steph Tully said the airline had transformed the way Australians travelled, with routes to 150 domestic and international destinations including Japan, Hawaii, Bali and Rarotonga.

“As we welcome new aircraft into our fleet and add more destinations to our network, we’re excited about the next 20 years and a new era of low-cost travel in Australia,” Ms Tully said.